Within each society wealth, power and status is distributed unfairly and unequally. This inequality creates social class divisions, people at different levels, where some have more while others less (Haralambos, 2008). All societies form through the same process where behaviour is learnt from others within the community. The learning process, known as socialization, varies and it is culture that determines how to think by teaching appropriate behaviour relevant to that society. Informal rules using the same norms and values specifies behaviour for certain situations and suggests how to behave overall. However, some people do not follow these informal rules and act as they wish. In this instance the term deviance is used for unpleasant behaviour whilst crime is behaviour when formal laws are broken, for which sanctions act as a form of deterrent (Livesey, 2005). There are various sociological theories of how societies operate each with alternative ideas as to the reason crime and deviance occurs, explained below.
Functionalism considers society responsible for behaviour rather than individuals so focuses on how they fit within society rather than how people operate. Functionalists believe society is structured to operate like the human body, each part has different functions to have an overall effect, termed organ analogy. The theory suggests society is split into different parts, such as the family, people within it have varying levels of importance and alternative social identities, duties or responsibilities, for instance a mother as a family carer. It is thought teaching socialization using collective consciousness, shared beliefs, morals and attitudes makes people cooperate, unite and agree on behavioural rules, v...
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...uld be fair to say that none of the theories totally explain crime as there is no accurate definition that can account for all the different types of crime even though crime, for many reasons, will always occur.
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There are many theories about why crime and violence exist in society. Sociologist have many perspectives on crime. While some believe that crime is caused by biological factors like race and ethnicity. Most people believe that crime is caused by a person’s socioeconomic status or their income. Socioeconomic status influence visibility which determines who is labeled as a criminal.
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Every society has its conventional norms that everyone is required to adhere to all the time. Violation of the dominant norms is usually met with harsh punishments since the society consider violation of societal norms as deviance. Deviance, according to Thio, Taylor and Schwartz (2012), is any behavior that violates the society's dominant norms. Conversely, in sociology, the term deviance is used to refer to the violation of the societal social norms. According to Henslin et al. (2013), deviant behaviors vary in magnitude and can be as small as violating traffic rules to murder. Normally, what is considered deviant behavior varies from one society to another. For instance, whereas some societies consider possession or use of marijuana as a deviant behavior, such as Canada, some societies, such as Jamaica does not consider marijuana possession or use as a deviant behavior. In Canada, section 4.3 of the criminal code considers possession or use of marijuana a crime, thus a deviant behavior. This implies that possession or use of marijuana violates the Canadian social norms. Although sociologists agree as to the definition of deviance, Henslin et al. (2013) noted that there has been a strong disagreement as to why people engage in deviant behaviors. The persistent disagreements have resulted in the emergence of different theories of deviance that attempts to explain how deviance operates in society. The theories include structural strain theory, labeling theory, social control theory, differential association theory and deterrence theory. However, as much as the perspectives of all the theories can be relied on, differential association theory appears to be a theory that best explains how deviance operat...
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Functionalists believe that all people share the same values and norms, a value consensus and this leads to the achievement of social solidarity, a sense of unity. Functionalism suggests that society needs to be thought of as a whole and in order for it to function all of the parts, social institutions need to work together. Durkheim used an organic analogy to describe this, comparing society to a human body. The organs all have individual roles,
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