Functionalist Perspective on Deviance

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Functionalist Perspective on Deviance
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Emile Durkheim-Function of Deviance

• Most people are upset by deviance, especially
  crime and assume that society would be better off
  without it
• He said that deviance (including crime) is
  functional for society because it contributes to
  social order

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Functions of crime continued

• 3 main functions of crime
• Clarifies moral boundaries and affirms norms
• Moral boundaries- a groups idea about how people
  should think and act
• Deviant acts challenge the boundaries and
  punishment affirms the groups norms
• Promotes social unity
• Fosters a we mentality
• In saying you cant get away with that affirms
  the rightness of the groups own way
• Promotes social change
• Boundary violations that gain enough support
  become new, acceptable behaviors
• Example Civil Rights Movement

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Mertons Strain Theory

• Some mainstream values actually generate crime
• Most people have strong desires to reach cultural
  goals like wealth or high states
• Not everyone has equal access to legitimate means
  of achieving those goals
• These people experience strain or frustration
  which may motivate they to take a deviant path

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Strain Theory continued

• People who experience strain are likely to feel
  anomie (a sense of normlessness)
• Mainstream norms s/a working hard and pursuing
  higher education dont seem to get them anywhere
• Some may feel wronged by the system

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5 responses to goal-means inconsistency

• Conformity- using socially acceptable means to
  try and reach cultural goals
• Example dont understand calculus, need it for
  college applications, then get a tutor
• 2. innovators- people who accept the goals of
  society but use illegitimate means to reach them
• Example dont understand calculus, need it for
  college, cheat on the test

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5 responses continued

• 3. ritualism- people get discouraged and give up
  on achieving cultural goals yet still cling to
  conventional rules
• Example dont understand calculus, need it for
  college, give up on ever understanding it, go
  through the motions and maybe pass with a D
• 4. retreatism- rejects both cultural goals and
  acceptable means of achieving them
• Example drop out of school and maybe pursue GED
• 5. rebellion- Convinced that their society is
  corrupt and reject societys goals and means.
• Seek to give society new goals
• Example Drop out and get a job

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Social Class and Crime

• Social classes have distinct styles of crime
• Unequal access to the acceptable means to success
  can explain this

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Street Crime

• Industrialized societies socialize the poor into
  wanting to own thing
• The poor are bombarded with advertisements and
  images on TV of middle-class people enjoying
  luxurious lives
• These images reinforce the myth that all
  full-fledged Americans can afford societys goods
  and services
• School Systems (acceptable means to success)
  often fail the poor
• Run by middle class and clashes with their
  background
• More likely to drop out of school, closing the
  door to legitimate avenues to financial success

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Street Crime continued

• Other doors open to the poor- illegitimate
  opportunity structures
• Robbery, drug dealing, prostitution, gambling,
  etc.
• For many in poor neighborhoods the hustler- or
  person succeeding through these avenues are role
  models
• easy money bring them closest to the cultural
  goal of success

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White-Collar Crime

• The more privileged social classes are not
  crime-free
• They find other forms of crime to be functional
• Physicians who cheat Medicare, embezzlement,
  manipulating stock prices, evading income tax.

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Corporate Crime

• Special form of white-collar crime
• Committed by executives in order to benefit their
  corporation
• Corporate crime is rarely taken seriously (more
  so nowadays with Enron, etc.) and few people end
  up in jail

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Gender and Crime

• There is a growing number of female offenders
• Reason women's changed social location
• As more women work in factories, corporations,
  etc., their opportunities for crime increase