Crime and deviance are acts that will elicit dissent from society.
They take various forms and involve various concepts and theories. It
will be the aim of this paper to explore those that are considered to
be functional for society.
It was Emile Durkheim who first clearly established the logic behind
the functional approach to the study of crime and deviance[1] when he
wrote The Rules of Sociological Method and The Division of Labour[2].
In those works, Durkheim argued that crime and deviance is “an
integral part of all healthy societies”. He reasoned that crime and
deviance are not only inevitable, but also functional for society and
that they will only be considered dysfunctional when they reach
abnormally high or low levels.
His theory of functionalism rooted from his amazement with how society
was able to keep itself intact amidst the social, political and
economic upheaval provoked by the Industrial Revolution. He found that
the social glue holding everything in place was: value consensus,
social solidarity and collective conscience; and that crime and
deviance had a role in this equation.
“Deviance” is a wide-ranging term used by sociologists referring to
behaviour that is off-tangent from social normalities[3], and that
“crime” is a variant of deviance, only that it “comprises activities
or actions which are deemed so damaging to the interests of the
community” (Pease, 1994) that some form of identification and action
must be done against the perpetrator. It follows that all crime are,
by definition, deviant behaviour, but not all forms of deviance are
criminal[4].
In the pre-industrial days, societies were sm...
... middle of paper ...
... Publishers Ltd., Chapter 6, pp. 330 – 403
8. Kai T. Erickson (nd) Notes on the Sociology of Deviance, in
Howard S. Becker (ed) (1967) The Other Side, Perspectives on
Deviance, Glencoe, The Free Press
9. Robert A. Nisbet (1975) The Sociology of Emile Durkheim, London,
Heinemann Educational Books Ltd., Chapter 7, pp. 209 – 237
Notes:
[1] (Criminology, nd)
[2] (Robert A. Nisbet, 1975)
[3] (Chris Livesey,nd)
[4] Ibid
[5] Ibid
[6] (Anthony Giddens, 2001)
[7] (Durkheim, nd)
[8] (Chris Livesey,nd)
[9] (Haralambos and Holborn, 2004)
[10] Ibid
[11] (Emile Durkheim, nd)
[12] (Criminology, nd)
[13] (Robert A. Nisbet, 1975)
[14] (Kai T. Erikson, nd)
[15] (Chris Livesey,nd)
[16] Ibid
[17] (Chris Livesey,nd)
[18] Ibid
Within this essay there will be a clear understanding of the contrast and comparison between left and right realism, supported by accurate evidence that will support and differentiate the two wings of realism.
In the study of Sociology of Deviance, sociologists develop theories and perspective in explaining the account for deviant and studying of how the society reacts. It is an interesting field to study because the difference and changes of deviance and social norms have a significant impact on individuals and groups. In this essay, I will examine varies definitions and perspective of Erikson and Heckerts respectively in respect to the following concepts: deviance serves certain functions for society, the typology of positive and negative deviance and the "middle class norms", and the labelling perspective on deviance.
Deviant behavior is sociologically defined as, when someone departs from the “norms”. Most of the time when someone says deviance they think against the law or acting out in a negative behavior. To sociologists it can be both positive and negative. While most crimes are deviant, they are not always. Norms can be classified into two categories, mores and folkways. Mores are informal rules that are not written; when mores are broken, they can have serious punishments and sanctions. Folkways are informal rules that are just expected to be followed, but have no real repercussions.
The TV show, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, often addresses criminal deviance such as rape and murder. In the episode, “Scorched Earth,” an African immigrant maid becomes a rape victim of a rich, Italian prime minister named Distascio (Wolf). This episode highlights how status can affect perception of certain deviant behaviors. Additionally, it addresses contemporary America’s values toward types of deviant acts, and sanctions that go along with them.
Symbolic interactionist make the major point. Because different groups have different norms, what is deviant to to some is not deviant to others. Structural functionalist could not be the correct answer because the functional perspective on deviance is that deviance also has functions. In contrast to this common assumption, the classic functionalist theorist Emile Durkheim (1893/1933, 1895/1964) came to a surprising conclusion. Deviance, he said—including crime—is functional for society. Deviance contributes to the social order in these three ways:
Before the 1950’s theorists focused on what the difference was between deviants and criminals from “normal” citizens. In the 1950’s researchers were more involved exploring meaning and reasons behind deviant acts. This led to the most dominant question in the field of deviance, “what is the structural and culture factors that lead to deviant behavior?” This question is important when studying deviance because there is no clear answer, everyone sees deviance in different ways, and how deviance is created. Short and Meier states that in the 1960’s there was another shift in focus on the subject of deviance. The focus was what causes deviance, the study of reactions to deviance, and the study of rule breaking and rule making. In the 1960’s society was starting to speak out on what they believed should be a rule and what should not; this movement create chaos in the streets. However, it gave us a glimpse into what makes people become deviant, in the case it was the Vietnam War and the government. Short and Meier also write about the three levels that might help us understand were deviance comes from and how people interact to deviance. The first is the micro level, which emphasizes individual characteristics by biological, psychological, and social sciences. The second level is macrosociological that explains culture and
In chapter one, Erikson gives a nod of recognition to Emile Durkheim’s work. Erikson notes Durkheim’s assertion that crime is really a natural kind of social activity. I started to think that Erikson may be trying to assert that if crime is a natural part of society, there is an indication that it is necessary in society. Erikson claims that non-deviants congregate and agree in a remarkable way to express outrage over deviants and deviancy, therefore solidifying a bond between members of society. Erikson continues to argue that this sense of mutuality increases individual’s awareness to the common goals of the society.
Our society as a whole is beginning to evolve into numerous classifications. Our society branches off of the social norm structure that we have thrived from for our whole existence. Now however, people in society are going throughout their lives not always aware of the impacts that their choices and influences make on the everyday world around them. From the time people are able to grasp the concept of right and wrong until it is their turn to pass down what is right or wrong, they are not only affecting the social structure of life, but the lives of so many around them, whether they may know it or not. Although most people in society try to avoid the negative forces around them, it is now becoming an excruciating challenge to avoid the pressure and rise to a daunting task. With so many types of deviance floating around the air, it is now nearly impossible to try and not get exposed to deviance and the consequences that come with it. Deviance does not just occur in one place either. Now, it is harder than ever to not catch this behavior. It is
Only an act that is defined by the validly passed laws of the nation state in which it occurred so that punishment should follow from the behaviour
A famous line from the movie The Usual Suspects goes “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist”. This is exactly what Dostoevsky does in his most famous novel Crime and Punishment. Throughout the novel references to God and forgiveness abound. There is a much darker side to what Dostoevsky writes though. If you have God working in your life unfortunately you also have the devil working in your life, and this is what happens to the main character of the book, Raskolnikov. He is given many chances to do the right thing and not sin, yet the devil still provides even more temptations, and gets Raskolnikov to fall into the trap of murder. Yet God does still give you chances for forgiveness and wants you to reject your sin. The devil works in any way he can to get men to sin, but God will send a way to get you to forgive your sins and come back to him and leave the devil’s ways, and that was Dostoevsky’s main point of Crime and Punishment.
Crimes are not ‘given’ or ‘natural’ categories to which societies simply respond. The composition of such categories change from various places and times, and is the output of social norms and conventions. Also, crime is not the prohibitions made for the purpose of rational social defence. Instead, Durkheim argues that crimes are those acts which seriously violate a society’s conscience collective. They are essentially violations of the fundamental moral code which society holds sacred, and they provoke punishment for this reason. It is because of these criminal acts which violate the sacred norms of the conscience collective, that they produce a punitive reaction. (Ibid)
Some of the behaviors characterized by certain groups of people forming subcultures that are determined by social aspects such as sexual orientation, ethnicity, and racial can be regarded as deviant in some societies. Therefore, deviance can be defined as going against the established cultural, social norms, and contexts within a certain communities. This deviance is sometimes established as crime in some societies. The deviant behaviors thus depends on factors such as the audience, location, or on individual basis in regard to the act in question. Additionally, the development of cultures has been characteristic of social control, and as such, as new subcultures rise, they provide for a threat towards the social constructs as determined by such cultures. As a result of the development of the subcultural facets within the societies both on the social media platforms and on the streets, new developments on how to deal with the problems inbound has also been under development. As Marenin (2016) states, as problems and solutions arise as a resultant of the development in new subcultures, conflicts between the police and the societal are also on the
Durkheim’s and Merton’s use of the term anomie differed in one fundamental way; while Durkheim viewed anomie as the lack of rules to restrain society, Merton viewed anomie as the overregulation inhibiting attainment of culturally accepted goals. These differences stemmed from their different contexts and views on the use of the criminal. However, through the medium of anomie theory, both sociologists have attempted to explain crime through using the social structure of a society. Overall, anomie theory is successful in describing many middle class crimes but fails to explain why senseless crimes occur and why some people undertake crime whilst others
In the American society criminal activity has become a part of the everyday activity. At any given time an individual can turn on the news and there has been some type of criminal activity that is headlining the news. More often then not it is a violent crime. Thanks to the media and exposure to crime on a regular basis as well as the entertainment industry, and other outlets projecting a certain stereotype of crime, and also criminals, society has developed their own definition of each. Society has also developed many myths or misconceptions about crime itself, and has distorted the realities to fit their mythical beliefs.
In the simplest form, crime is an illegal action which the societies do not support and government punishes for. Crimes and the criminal justice system are witnessed by society every evening newscast, and in every newspaper. The answer to crime seems to be more punishment, more security and, of course, more prisons. To deal with crime, the best way is imprisonment because prisons have many missions such as; punishment, deterrence and rehabilitation and also do a lot to solve the crime problems by using these missions. Therefore, to keep criminals away from society, prisons serve an essential role.