Outline and assess Functionalist explanations of crime and deviance. This question includes assessment of your understanding of the connections between crime and deviance and sociological theory. Functionalist explanations of deviance begin with society as a whole looking for the origins of deviance in the nature of society‚ not the biological or psychological make up of an individual. Functionalists favour quantative methods to look at society‚ using statistics to see society as a whole‚ rather
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Outline and evaluate functionalist views of the role of the family in society. (33 Marks) Functionalists stress the positive aspect of family. In particular‚ they force on the positive role of one particular family type: the nuclear family. Murdoch (1949) claimed the family was a universal institution. He studied 250 societies and found the family‚ in some form‚ was present in all of them. This suggests that families are necessary in some way‚ whether it be for societies to survive‚ for individual
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sees the source of crime and deviance located in the structure of society. Although crime and deviance might be stigmatised in society‚ some sociologist think it is important to have it occur and there are some benefits to it. Durkheim (1982) argued that crime is an inevitable feature of social life‚ because individuals are composed to different influences and circumstances‚ and so not everyone can be equally committed to the shared values and moral beliefs of society. Despite crime and deviance’s threat
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Deviance is an action or behavior that violates social or cultural norms. It can be categorized into two categories‚ formal and informal. Formal deviance is a criminal act as dictated by the law. Social norms dictate informal deviance. The functionalist perspective of deviance is that crime is inevitable because not everyone can or will be equally committed. A lot of social change seems to begin with a form of deviance. For example‚ the Civil Rights Movement. People such as Rosa Parks who
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Crime Times Many people over the years have tried to explain why there is crime in our society. Functionalists focus on the source of deviance in the nature of society rather than biological and psychological explanations. Every functionalist agrees that social control mechanisms e.g. the police are necessary to keep deviance in check and therefore protecting social order. A main contributor to the functionalist theory of crime is Durkheim. He believed that society is based on a value consensus
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Assess the functionalist view of crime and deviance. [21 marks] This essay will detail the functionalist perspective of crime and deviance. Functionalist theories began to emerge after the industrial revolution in the 18th century. This period was called the enlightenment‚ and brought about scientific belief as opposed to the feudalist beliefs of religion. Religion no longer had such a powerful impact on peoples’ lives. The aim of sociological theories such as functionalism is to cure social ills
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Functionalist approach to Crime and Deviance Durkheim Functionalism sees society as based on value consensus. Functionalists argue that in order to achieve this solidarity‚ society has two key mechanisms: socialisation and social control (mechanisms include rewards positive sanctions for conformity‚ and punishments negative sanctions for deviance) The inevitability of crime Durkheim believes that crime is normal‚ and argues there are at least two reasons why crime and deviance are found
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together. This essay will compare and contrast the Functionalist and Marxist views of the role of the family in the social structure. Functionalist theories operate on the basis of consensus; they believe the family plays a vital role in maintaining the social structure as well meeting the needs of various systems in the society. They see it performing beneficial functions both for wider society and for all its individual members. Functionalists assume the family is harmonious and ignore conflict
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Outline and evaluate Functionalist views of the role of the family in society. [33 marks] Functionalism is a structuralist theory; this meaning that it sees social structure (the social organisation of society) as more important than individuals. Functionalist sociologists believe that people have a range of basic needs that must be met if society is to run smoothly. Different groups and individuals in society are important because they perform certain functions which meet society’s needs. Functionalism
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Explain and Assess the Marxist explanation of Crime and Deviance According to Wickham (1991)‚ deviance is behaviour that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society. Karl Marx says that deviance is due to unequal power relationships and is a function of class struggle. Crime‚ however‚ is an act of deviance prohibited by law. The conflict theory of crime states that those in the higher social classes will benefit more from the government‚ compared to those in the lower
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