Deviance In Criminological Analysis

Deviance: Functionalist Explanations

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Deviance: F unctionalist E xplanations
The Functionalist Explanation of Crime/22/11/999/P.Covington/ 1999 At times, a package deal is presented in which functionalist, positivism, empiricism, evolutionism, and determinism are collectively linked with a ‘consensus’ approach to social problems and a conservative approach to their solution. Downes and Rock, 1995 Being a peripheral and ad hoc modern day, functionalist criminology may be represented as a somewhat piecemeal accumulation of arguments. It is not integrated, organised or coherent, and it has not been the subject of long debate. Others may have criticised what it has done, but those who have been attacked have not usually turned round to
In essence, this means that people regard as unimportant the social expectations to respect the rights and the needs of others and prefer to look after their own interests even at their neighbours expense. They return to their natural state of greed and self-interest. For society his heralds the long term collapse of order and harmony. Anomie, then, is dangerous and harmful to all. The Ways in Which Society can Reaffirm their Values and Ensure Social Cohesion There are a number of ways in which societies reaffirm their values and ensure continuing social cohesion. The most obvious ways include.... Education: the teaching of a common language, history, social studies etc. Religion: through the process of collective worship of a common God. At first sight it seems strange that some functionalists should argue that deviance is a necessary part of all societies, and that it performs positive functions for the social system. After all deviance break the norms and values of society. With the functionalists emphasis on the importance of shared norms and values as the basis of social order it would appear that deviance is a threat to social order, and therefore should be seen as a threat to society. All functionalists agree those social control mechanisms such as the police and the courts Other important writers who take a Functionalist perspective
Durkheim suggests that there is a purpose to the existence of all social phenomena, the necessary purpose of deviance being to bond the social group. This is difficult to imagine because it treats society as a living thing, an object which forces individuals to follow, like sheep or robots, the wider social pattern 2. His influence on sociology has been immense and even those who disagree with him have generally fallen into dialogue with his views. 3. He does not explain why certain people are more likely to commit crimes than others. 4. It is difficult to test the theory of crime. It seems to be a ‘have your cake and eat it theory’, where crime may invalidate the functionalist claims of social stability, but it seen to ‘really’ function to create such stability by showing people how not to behave. Thus functionalists are able to ‘prove’ stability in life, even where conflict is shown to exist 5. He seems to ignore the concept of power. It is generally accepted that in all societies some groups have greater ability than the bulk of the population to influence the law making process. 6. Functionalism fails to provide an answer to the question ‘Functional for whom?’. 7. Durkheim’s work was perhaps the first to analyse deviance in terms of a broad sociological theory. Resources Used Heavily