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(Unfinished) essay answer on how functionalists explain crime
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In what ways do Functionalists explain crime?PEEE 1 - Durkheim
PEEE 2 - Davis
PEEE 3 - Merton
P- Durkheim explained that crime is not only normal but in fact an integral part of all/any healthy society.
E- He listed five separate categories that explained why crime was beneficial in creating a healthy society and
he labelled them as: Crime reaffirming boundaries, crime acting as a safety valve, crime acting as a warning
device, crime building employment and finally crime allowing society to adapt and change.
E- Each of these categories provide separate explanations as to why Durkheim believes that crime is positive.
Crime reaffirms a person’s moral boundaries by keeping their shared norms and values in check and is done by
witnessing public outcry/ the punishment of offenders, he also explains that crime can be a safety valve
because it allows for the release of stress before it can become too dangerous. Crime acting as a warning
device was also found to be affective as it draws attention to the aspects of society that are malfunctioning so
that they can be fixed and because of these malfunctioning areas of society it also creates jobs such as
policing, governing etc. finally, Durkheim stated that crimes allows society to adapt and change as they very
quickly learn what is and isn’t expected so when malfunctions do occur they can adapt to the issues caused
and make changes to ensure that it does not happen again so that society can go back to functioning as a
body.
E- To back up his statements each one can be paired with a real life example and can be seen as follows: seeing
violent protestors being arrested (E.g. in recent times a lot of this can be seen in the clash for Trans rights),
committing petty crime such as vandalism to release stress before it turns violent ( an example could be
Banksy), returning to the idea of protesting; the government and others alike realise that there is an
malfunction and act to fix this (for example, the Suffragette movement), jobs created by crime can be police
officers, judges and prison wardens so when there is an influx in crime more jobs are made to tackle it (for
example, more people were needed during times of high violence such as the wars). Finally, and example of
society needing to adapt, and change can be brought back to the Suffragette movement as they forced society
to adapt to contest protesting and unhappiness before the government gave in and changed the laws to allow
women to vote.
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