The Fundamentalist Perspective on Violence

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The Fundamentalist Perspective on Violence In the United States, violence is a major problem that is getting only worse. Not only is it glorified on almost every television show, but some of the most tragic acts of violence make headlines on major news stations daily across the country. Although the media portrays violent acts constantly, people are desensitized to the magnitude of the problem. Many people feel like the problem is so far away from them that they should not worry about it. It’s the mentality that “if I’m not looking for violence, I won’t find it.” Unfortunately, for those victims at recent school and mall shootings, violence found them. Tragedies like this put fear in communities, and prove that being proactive to prevent them may have been a better approach. According to the functionalist perspective, society is a stable, orderly system composed of a number of interrelated parts, each of which performs a function that contributes to the overall stability of society. Some functionalists believe that violence arises from a condition of anomie – a feeling of helplessness, normlessness, or alienation – which is believed to precede times of rapid growth or change in society. It is the concept that rapid social change intensifies disorganization. The Industrial Revolution, although a time of great prosperity within many social institutions, was documented to be a phase of increased crime, poverty, and disease. However, others say that violence increases due to the deterioration or weakening of important social institutions such as the family, schools, and religious organizations. According to the functionalist perspective, this causes the main mechanism for social control to rely on external institutions, allocating the task of damage control to the police and the justice system. Unfortunately, it is documented in society today that the government,

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