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Crime and Deviance: Functionalist explanations, image, Anomie - A state of…

- - - - Evaluation
        
        He fails to distinguish different types of crime. Some crimes may be so harmful that they will always be dysfunctional rather than functional.
        
        Durkheim suggests the criminal justice system benefits everyone by punishing criminals and reinforcing the acceptable boundaries of behaviour. However, Marxist and Feminist demonstrate not all criminals are punished equally and thus crime and punishment benefit the powerful over the powerless.
      - Punishment doesn't remove crime, as it's necessary for society, it just controls crime. Social control is necessary to keep crime in check. Crime and punishment is important for social order.
      - Crime has positive functions:
        Social Regulation - Individuals are punished, so it's clear to the society that the action concerned is unacceptable. Also media broadcasts boundaries of acceptable behaviour.
        Social Integration - crime strengthens community, e.g., they join in outrage at a particular crime.
        Social Change - criminals can reflect the wishes of the population testing the boundaries and legitimising social change.
      - A limited amount of crime is inevitable
        Since individuals are exposed to different influences and circumstances, some people would inevitably break the law.
        Deviance would even exist in a ‘society of saints’ populated by ‘perfect’ individuals. The standards of behaviour would be so high that the slightest slip would be regarded as a serious offence.
  - - - Criminal Subcultures develop in working class areas with an established pattern of crime. This teaches youth how to be criminals and is an alternative to the legitimate job market. Adult criminals exercise social control over the young to stop them carrying out non-utilitarian delinquent acts – such as vandalism – which might attract the attention of the police.
      - Conflict subcultures are in disorganised areas, where there's a high population and lack of social cohesion. This prevents stable adult criminal subcultures created. Conflict subcultures are known by gangs and street crime. Both (il)legal means of achieving goals are limited, and young people express frustration through violence or street crime. Gaining status through success in peer-group values. this explains gang culture in poor areas.
      - 3. Retreatist subcultures emerge among from lower class youth who are ‘double failures’ – they have failed to succeed in both mainstream society and in the crime and gang cultures. The response is a retreat into drug addiction shoplifting ect.
      - Evaluation:
        
        Postmodernists, the nature of subcultures has changed, they're a normal part of life. Subculture theory assumes that there are ‘mainstream norms and values’ which subcultures deviate from. This is wrong to Postmodernists – in society, deviance and subcultures are ‘normal’, therefore the theory is irrelevant for crime explanations.