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Functionalism and Crime - Coggle Diagram
Functionalism and Crime
Functional
Durkheim argues that crime only becomes dysfunctional and harmful for society when its rate is unusually high or low.
He argued that all social change begins with some form of deviance. In order for change to occur, yesterday's deviance must become today's normality. Since a certain amount of change is healthy for society (enabling progression not stagnation), so is deviance.
Durkheim regarded crime as 'an anticipation of the morality of the future'. For example, Nelson Mandela went from being condemned as a terrorist to being a globally respected statesman, released from South African prison in 1990 and being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
He also argued that the function of punishment was not to remove crime from society but to maintain the collective sentiments at their necessary level of strength, so that they don't lose their power to control behaviour and the crime rate doesn't reach a dysfunctional level.
Victims of crimes may find this argument difficult to reconcile, and the disproportionate enforcement of crime makes it less valid.
Inevitable and normal
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It is inevitable because not every member of society can be equally committed to the collective sentiments (shared values and moral beliefs) of society.
Since individuals are exposed to different influences and circumstances, it is 'impossible for all to be alike'. Therefore not everyone is equally reluctant to break the law.
Durkheim imagined a 'society of saints' populated by perfect individuals where there was no murder or robbery but there would still be deviance. The slightest slip would be regarded as a serious offense. Thus, a person who was merely impolite would attract strong disapproval from other members of that society.
Merton (1968) also argued that since members of society are placed in different positions in the social structure, they do not have the same opportunity of realising the shared values. This situation can generate deviance.
In Merton's words, 'the social and cultural structure generates pressure for socially deviant behaviour upon people variously located in that structure'.
Anomie
Merton's explain to explain the theory of anomie is the US, where great importance is attached to success, and little importance is attached to the accepted ways of achieving success.
American society is therefore unstable and unbalanced, with a tendency to reject the 'rules of the game' and to strive for success by any available means (e.g. Trump).
When rules cease to operate, a situation of normlessness (anomie) results. Norms no longer direct behaviour and deviance is encouraged. It involves over-emphasis on cultural goals of success and simultaneous under-emphasis on culturally accepted means of achieving success (norms, laws), leading to a breakdown in norms and dysfunction.
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Evaluation: Taylor, Walton and Young (1973) believe that Merton's theory cannot account for politically motivated criminals who break the law because of commitment to their cause rather than the effects of anomie.
Other critics argue Merton over-predicts and exaggerates working class crime and underestimates white collar crime.
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Anomie developed
Though A.Cohen (1955) criticised Merton's views on working class deviance, his argument began in a similar way.
Lower working class boys hold the success goals of mainstream culture but largely due to educational failure and the dead-end jobs that result from this, they have little opportunity to achieve these goals- failure explained by their position in the social structure.
Cohen supported the view that cultural deprivation accounts for lack of educational success. Stuck at the bottom of the stratification system, with avenues to success blocked, lower working class boys suffer from status frustration.
Status frustration is resolved through criminal paths to success, by rejecting the success goals of mainstream culture. They replace them with an alternative set of norms and values, to gain success and prestige, resulting in a delinquent subculture.
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Panorama episode 'Trouble on the Estate' in Shadsworth found an extreme case of childhood delinquency in one of the poorest estates in the UK- anti-social behaviour.
Evaluation: Box (1981) questioned the view that most young offenders originally accepted mainstream standards of success but rather than experiencing guilt for their own failure, they feel resentment for being regarded as failures by teachers and middle class youths, whose values they do not share and cannot escape. They turn against those who look down on them.
Link to Labelling Theory
This concept lends itself to Becker's (1963) labelling theory where he said that 'the deviant is one to whom the label has successfully been applied; deviant behaviour is behaviour that people so label'.
He suggests that an act only becomes deviant when others perceive and define it as such. He used the example of a brawl. In a low income neighbourhood it may be defined by police as evidence of delinquency but in a wealthy neighbourhood it may be defined as evidence of youthful high spirits.
If the agents of social control define the youngsters as delinquents and they are convicted for breaking the law, they then become deviant.
Becker argued that 'deviance is not a quality that lies in behaviour itself, but in the interaction between the person who commits an act and those who respond to it'- this labelling changes over-time and perhaps between groups of people.