Crime provides jobs, acts as a deterrent for conforming citizens and puts behavior into perspective. He believes that without crime somewhat trivial offense could be blown out of proportion. Durkheim also states that too much or too little crime is dysfunctional for society. Too much and society breaks down into a state of anomie, whereby society is in a state of normlessness and an absence of norms and values occurs; too little crime and society stagnates and cannot evolve. Functionalists also believes that crime can create unity for those within society, a crime is committed and people unite and feel protected because they share the same view on it's awfulness; however one could criticsise this and say although it may create 'unity' the
Examining realist theories Using material from item A and elsewhere assess the value of the right realist approach to crime and deviance (21) Right realism is a conservative and extreme functionalist view of crime. They see it as a growing problem that destroys societies. Sociologists such as James Q Wilson have stressed the point that it cannot be tolerated. The right realist views closely correspond with those of the neo-conservative views in the 70s and 80s. They both argue that ‘nothing works’ right realists are more concerned with solving crime rather than understanding the causes.
Using materials like anti-climb paint or neighbourhood watch schemes they make the target harder to achieve, or more risky. This process is called target hardening. An advantage of this is that it directly influences the criminal by allowing them to stop and think about the real consequences to their actions. Another concept that right realists believe should be implemented is a zero tolerance policy. A zero tolerance policy is a tough system of policing that was put into practice in New York, USA, in which even minor offences are punished.
Crime as defined by Winterdyk, “is a socially constructed concept used to categorize certain behaviours as requiring formal control and warranting some form of social intervention” (Winterdyk, 2006, p. 491). Individuals that commit these criminal acts are believed to have made a specific choice in the matter. The benefits and consequences have been weighed therefore the criminal has made the choice, but what other circumstances can have a role in this decision? It is understood that social structures, social processes and human biology can all have an affect on the outcome of our individual acts. However the biological flaws of persons are not as significant as one may think.
Most, if not all, acts of crime are categorized as deviant behaviour, for example, murder. Deviance is behaviour which drifts away from society’s established norms and values, but is not necessarily perceived as crime, such as queue jumping (Haralambos and Holborn 2009). The functionalist approach to crime and deviance is one of value consensus. They emphasise social stability and collective public values, a ‘collective conscience’. Functionalist define crime and deviance as functional and necessary to society as a whole, with just the right amount of crime to avoid anomie; normlessness.
His theory had two basic elements, firstly it pointed out that criminal behaviour is learned by the interaction within intimate personal groups through communication this includes techniques for committing the crimes (Bernard et al., 2010 p.180). Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) contest this statement explaining the average delinquent act may be committed before the interactions with other delinquents as the crime may need no special skills (Smith & Brame 1994). The delinquent behaviour and the pleasure derived from the act may cause the attraction to and joining of a delinquent social group meaning this behaviour is not learned
‘Outline and explain ways in which data about crime is collected’ Crime can be defined as deviant activities that break the law in any particular society. Finding out how much crime takes place isn’t easy, and attempts to measure crime can prove misleading. This doesn’t mean that crime statistics aren’t affective, but it does mean that no single measure can be fully relied upon. Many sociologists see crime statistics as a social construction, as collecting crime data is a result of the cultural expectations of society, and by understanding who commits crime and what sorts of crimes are committed, we can get a clearer picture of why people commit crime in the first place. Different sociologists have presented different theories and concepts to explain what drives a person to commit a crime, and research and statistics give us an idea of the type of crimes committed and the places that they’re most likely to occur.
In particular, entertain the idea that the goal of our criminal justice system is not to eliminate crime or to achieve justice. hut to project to the A,nericau public a ( visible image of the threat of crime as a threat from the poot: To do this, the justice sys— tern must maintain the existence of a sizable population of poor criminals.To do this, it must fail in the struggle to eliminate the crimes that
The first is instrumental, the state responds to crime to secure benifits of the wider society such as crime prevention & crime reduction. The second purpose of the Australia criminal justice system is non utilitarian, which means the state must redress imbalances caused by those people who take illegal advantage of another or diminish another’s human dignity. An example of informal control is the socialisation process. Socialisation is the general process by which individuals within a society learn & assimilate social norms & socially acceptable behaviour. This learned behaviour is a social inheritances, drawing on the information passed down from generation to generation, which is the basis of any societies
Contrast the functionalist and conflict theories of crime. The functionalist would argue that those who transgress are usually dealt with by the law and that order is restored. The conflict theorist would argue that the law enforcement system perpetuates the inequalities and would give the example of how many white-collar crimes go unpunished. Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_8586125_compare-contrast-functionalist-conflict-theories.html#ixzz2iJlpn5zx Contrast the functionalist and conflict theories of crime. The functionalist would argue that those who transgress are usually dealt with by the law and that order is restored.