Functionalist theory of crime and deviance Free Essay Example.
Unlike other sociological perspectives such as Marxism, Functionalist sociologists have a positive view of crime and deviance, seeing it as a necessary and useful part of social life.
The Functionalist perspective of crime and deviance is: Answer Functionalists believe that crime is functional and necessary for society as it helps caution society about the costs vs benefits of committing crime; it also helps caution society to refrain from being victimised.
Sociological perspective. Introduction. Sociologists have tried to understand crime and deviance in different ways. Most of the ancient sociologists have come up with different sociological perspectives that try to explain crime and deviance. Emile Durkheim came up with rule of sociological methods that explained crime as part of society norms.
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 than looking at the individual’s effect on society.
Deviance: Functionalist Explanations Deviance: Functionalist Explanations 4 4 Functions and Dysfunction of Crime According to Durkheim, there are two crucial elements in understanding crime, which at first sight appear to be slightly contradictory. A limited amount of crime is necessary and.
Evaluate the usefulness of Functionalist theories to our understanding of crime and deviance (40 marks) Evaluate the usefulness of Functionalist theories to our understanding of crime and deviance (40 marks) A functionalist analysis of crime and deviance begins with society as a whole. It looks for the source of deviance in the nature of society rather than in the individual.
To clarify the meaning of both words in the context of this essay; crime is an unlawful criminal act, whereas deviance is a behaviour which is not a social norm (breaking the social rules). Throughout the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century many researchers into the phenomena of crime regarded crime as a social science in which modern scientific methods could be applied to.