Functionalist Crime And Deviance Flashcards
What are Durkheim 3 ideas about crime and deviance?
1)Crime is necessary and inevitable
2)Crime has multiple positive functions
3)Too much crime is bad for society
What is a society of saints?
A society consisting of well behaved people.
What is one of the positive functions of crime?
1) marking extremities of acceptable behaviour
2)Publicity function
3)reflection of the wishes of the population
4)bonds strengthened
5)Safety valve
6)A warning device
Now explain that function:
1) bad behaviour not acceptable in society
2) dramatic settings pushed to society so people buy it
3)people contest the boundaries
4)negative news brings people together
5)allowing the release of tension without wider disruption
6) shows something is failing in society
What was cohens theory on the safety valve?
Men use prostitution as way to release stress without breaking the family.
Why is too much crime bad?
Creates Anomie.
What is Anomie.
People regarding respect and rights and the needs of others as unimportant in the pursuit of their own interests.
What are the 3 Cultural goals as suggested by Merton?
Wealth, sex and power.
What are conformists?
People who accept the cultural goals and institutions.
What are innovatists?
People who accept the goals but rejects the institutions.
What are ritualist’s
People who accept the goals but reject the institutions.
What are retreatists?
People who reject the goals and institutions.
What are rebellion’s
People who reject the traditions goals and accept new goals.
What is Herschi’s theory?
What are they.
His idea that there are 4 reasons why people don’t turn to crime.
Attachment
Commitment
Involvement
Belief
Explain each belief.
Attachment- idea you care about others
Commitment- personal investment, how much you have to lose
Involvement- how busy you are
Belief- people’s belief in whether they should commit a crime or not
What are some critiques of functionalism in crime and deviance?
1)Durkheim makes assumptions that anyone violating societal norms is punished equally.
2) Interactionists question that functionality is dependant on personal experience, what is functional to one is not functional to all.
3)Post modernists say there is no universal norms and we all exist within our own simulacra.
