Functionalists

Question 1

How do functionalists view crime?

Answer 1

Functionalists believe that crime is inevitable as all societies contain crime therefore it must be an aspect of human nature.

Question 2

How would functionalists view the 9/11?`

Answer 2

The loss of lives was not functional however:

• Airport security has increased as a response to prevent future strategies.
• New York came together in grief to strengthen their value consensus and moral compass.

Question 3

How would functionalists view the death of baby Peter Connelly?

Answer 3

The tragedy was not functional however:

- In light of his death, safeguarding, child protection and welfare laws have improved since.

Question 4

What is the Peter Connelly case study?

Answer 4

A 17 month old baby died in 2007 after receiving more then 50 injuries over a 8 month period.

Question 5

What do functionalists believe could crate future criminals?

Answer 5

Erratic and dysfunctional childhoods often lead to poor socialisation which can then lead to future criminals.

Question 6

What is primary socialization?

Answer 6

The fundamental conditions of human life. When someone learns the attitudes, values, and actions appropriate to individuals as members of a particular culture.

Question 7

What is anomie?

Answer 7

Anomie is the sense of alienation, isolation or loneliness that leads to a lack of usual morals or ethics.

Question 8

What does Durkheim define anomie as?

Answer 8

• While anomie is an individual experience, Durkheim believes it is a social fact and that it has societal or wide scale causes.
• He referred to the absence of norms to regulate human needs and actions.

Question 9

What were Merton’s ideas on anomie?

Answer 9

Merton explained

Question 10

Define value consensus.

Answer 10

An agreement among society’s members about what values are important: a shared culture.

Question 11

Define culture.

Answer 11

All those things that are learnt and shared by a society or group and transmitted from generation to generation through socialisation.

Question 12

Summarise the two key mechanisms that society uses to achieve solidarity.

Answer 12

• Socialisation instils the shared culture into its members. Ensures that individuals internalise same norms and values and that they feel it right to act the way that society requires.
• Social control mechanisms include positive sanctions for conformity and negative sanctions for deviance. Ensures individuals behave in the way that society expects.

Question 13

Briefly explain two reasons why crime is found in all societies.

Answer 13

• Not everyone is equally effectively socialised into the same norms and values.
• Diversity of lifestyles and values. Different groups develop their own subcultures with distinctive norms and values, and what the members of the subculture may see as normal, mainstream culture may see as deviant.

Question 14

According to Durkheim, why are modern societies likely to experience crime?

Answer 14

Modern societies have a complex, specialised division of labour, which leads to individuals becoming increasingly different from one another. This weakens the shared culture or collective conscience and results in a higher level of deviance.

Question 15

Briefly explain Durkheim’s two important positive functions of crime.

Answer 15

Boundary maintenance:

• Crime produces reaction from society, uniting members in condemnation of wrongdoer + reinforcing commitment to shared norms + values.
• Durkheim: function of punishment. Purpose of punishment is to reaffirm society’s shared rules and reinforce social solidarity.
• May be done in court to publicly shame and stigmatise the offender.
• Similarly: S. Cohen ‘dramatisation of evil’ and ‘folk devils’.

Adaption and change:
Durkheim: Change starts with act of deviance.
- Individuals mustn’t be completely stifled by weight of social control.
- Must be some scope to be challenged and change existing norms and values (appears deviant).
- Neither a very high or low level of crime is desirable.
- Too much crime threatens to tear the bonds of society apart.
- Too little means that society is repressing and controlling its members too much, stifling individual freedom and preventing damage.

Question 16

Why is functionalism useful for understanding crime and deviance?

Answer 16

Provides an important and interesting analysis that directs attention to the ways in which deviance can have hidden or latent functions for society
- i.e not everything that is bad, is bad for society.

Question 17

Briefly outline three criticisms of the functionalist theory of crime and deviance.

Answer 17

• Explains existence of crime in terms of supposed function but this doesn’t mean society creates crime in advance with the intention of increasing solidarity.
• Looks at what functions crime serves for society as a whole, ignores how it might affect different groups or individuals within. Functionalism fails to ask ‘functional for whom?’
• Crime doesn’t always promote solidarity. May have opposite effect, leading people to become more isolated e.g forcing women to stay indoors for fear of attack. Conversely, some crimes reinforce collective sentiments e.g uniting a community in condemnation of a brutal attack.

Question 18

According to strain theories, why do people engage in deviant behaviour?

Answer 18

People engage in deviant behaviour when they’re unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means.

Question 19

Briefly outline the two elements that Merton’s explanation combines.

Answer 19

• Structural factors: Society’s unequal opportunity structure.
• Cultural factors: The strong emphasis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them.

Question 20

According to Merton, what two factors cause strain for individuals?

Answer 20

• The goals that a culture encourages individuals to achieve.
• What the institutional structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately.

Question 21

How are Americans meant to pursue their goals? (American dream)

Answer 21

Legitimate means: self-discipline, study, educational qualifications and hard work in a career.

Question 22

What might prevent some groups from achieving their goals?

Answer 22

• Many disadvantaged groups are denied opportunities to achieve legitimately.
• For example, poverty, inadequate schools and discrimination in the job market for many ethnic minorities and the lower classes.

Question 23

Briefly explain the strain to anomie.

Answer 23

• Strain between cultural goal of money + lack of legitimate opportunities to achieve.
• Produces frustration and creates pressure to resort to illegitimate means such as crime and deviance.
• Merton calls this pressure to deviate ‘strain to anomie’