Functionalism C+D

Question 1

Durkheim

Answer 1

• Believe that crime is inevitable in society.
• Poor socialisation and inequality result in the absence of norms and values being taught.
• BUT, they do believe crime is positive for society because it allows boundary maintenance and allows a pathway for adaptation and change.

Question 2

Davis - ‘Safety valvle’

Answer 2

• Agrees with Durkheim in that crime can be positive, but in a different way.
  EG. Prostitution provides positive functions because it allows men to express sexual frustration w/o harming the nuclear family.

Question 3

Adaption and change:

Answer 3

Some crime can be functional for society because it allows social adaption and change; this means that for society to have norms and values that change as a form of rationalism, a criminal act must take place.

Question 4

Durkheim - Boundary Maintenance

Answer 4

• When people commit crime, they are punished by the criminal system.
• This reminds other citizens of the value consensus which strengthens its effectiveness.
• Crime creates social solidarity, a sense of togetherness, in society that serves to bind the wider community together.

Question 5

Durkheim - Warning device

Answer 5

• Argues this is when society needs to adapt and change as a result of crime.
• All change starts with deviance or in extreme cases, criminal activity.
• Individuals must be able to think differently if society wants to evolve further.
• Criminal activity can sometimes show that a current social policy has lots its function in society.

Question 6

Merton - Strain theory:

Answer 6

States that crime is caused by the failure to achieve the goals of the American dream through legitimate means. In his theory there are 5 different responses to the American dream.

Question 7

Merton’s 5 responses to the American Dream:

Answer 7

1. Conformists - Those who accept the goals and legitimate means to achieve them, regardless if they fail.
2. Rebels - Replaces the goals and create their own, whilst changing how they’ll achieve them.
3. Innovation - Accept the goals, but use illegitimate means to achieve them.
4. Ritualism - Reject the goals but conform to the means.
5. Rretreatism - Reject the goals and means to achieve them and subscribe to illegitimate means (Hippies)

Question 8

Hirschi - Social control

Answer 8

• Social control and social order are maintained through the process of socialisation
• Suggest that people feel social bonds that control them from committing crime due to the negative impacts of the society they live in.

Question 9

4 bonds

Hirschi - Bonds of Attainment

Answer 9

1. Attatchment - People have goals and activities they do in order to achive these goals. EG. Education. This leads to confomity to society’s norms and values.
2. Belief - Refers to the individual’s commitment to the norms and values of society. Dependent upon the socialisatin of individuals into a value consensus.
3. Commitment - Interactions that people have with other within their community. Those commited to community are unlikely to want to go against the wishes of others. EG. Committing crime would be shameful to their family.
4. Involvement - Extent to which people are involved with their local community. Means less people have the opportunity to commit crime. People are aware of potential damage that criminal behaviour can do to their community.

Question 10

AO3: Hirschi

Answer 10

Assumes that social bonds mean the same to all individuals.