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A* AQA A Level Sociology, crime and deviance essays
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13 A* grade A-Level sociology crime and deviance essays for the AQA A Level Sociology specification
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AQA A-Level SociologyCrime and Deviance
A* essays
1. Functionalism
2. Marxism
3. Left realism
4. Right realism
5. Gender
6. Ethnicity
7. Class
8. Globalisation
9. Green crime
10. Media
11. State crime
12. Crime prevention
13. Victimology
,Evaluate functionalist explanations of crime and deviance.
Functionalism argues that society is comprised of a complex system of institutions which work together
to create a functioning society, promoting value consensus and social solidarity. In terms of crime and
deviance, functionalists view crime as inevitable and a reaction to a dysfunction of society and a useful
role in society. Overall, functionalist explanations for crime can explain the causes of crime, however, is
limited in the scope of crime which it can explain, and it fails to provide solutions to crime and therefore
is insufficient to provide a full account of crime and deviance.
Some functionalists argue that crime is inevitable and plays a positive role in society which prevents
worse criminal acts. Durkheim argues that there are three main positive functions of crime in society.
Crime maintains the boundary of what is acceptable in society and what is not by highlighting criminal
acts as formally wrong. Crime can bring society together, such as after the 9/11 attack it brought
communities together with a collective goal of helping each other. This perpetuates value consensus
and social solidarity which Durkheim views are critical for a functioning society. Finally, crime can aid in
adapting and changing attitudes and laws through being a means of protesting what is dysfunctional in
society. Therefore, crime can be seen to have a high utility as it can move society towards a place of
consensus, alternatively highlight the need to act when there is too much crime and society moves
towards anomie. Furthermore, functionalist Davis suggests that minor crime can act as a safety valve to
prevent more serious crimes as it can release frustrations and urges an individual may have. This means
that crime, again, can be positive for society to continue to function and it works as an outlet for
dysfunction. However, a key issue with this functionalist theory is that Durkheim fails to quantify how
much crime is good for society and where the point is which turns to anomie. Without this, functionalist
explanations do not give an adequate account of crime and deviance as we cannot judge when action is
needed to reduce crime. With this, Durkheim and Davis fail to explain the causes of crime or where the
frustrations come from to which criminal acts are the result, nor do they provide any solutions to crime
, primarily as they view it as positive for society, however a useful theory of crime and deviance cannot be
restricted by minor positive impacts compared with the serious negative issues for society.
Additionally, functionalism suggests that crime is a reaction to the dysfunctional structures in society
and a failure to reach the goals set out by the value consensus in society. Merton argues that criminal
acts are a result of the strain between means and goals which many have which leads them to being
innovative and taking non-legitimate measures to reach such goals. For example, ideas around the
American dream are common in society but someone without the education to get them a well-paid job,
may result to theft to gain the same lifestyle. Therefore, criminal acts occur because not everyone has
the same opportunities to reach certain goals, but the value consensus means that some people must
take other methods to reach said goals. Moving from the individual to groups, Cohen suggests that
lower class people are frustrated because they want to be successful but lack the skills and qualifications
to do so which is solved through rejecting society and creating alternative status hierarchies in
subcultures which achieve status through committing crimes. However, both Cohen and Merton's
theories assume that all people have the same values when there are clear differences between people,
such as how Miller outlines the focal concerns of the working class as tougher and more aggressive than
that of the middle class. Marxists would argue that strain and frustration is because capitalism is
criminogenic. It is the disconnect between what Gorden labels, the capitalist foci (values of greed and a
focus on profit) and the lack of opportunities for the working classes that they are led to commit crime.
Therefore, although Merton and Cohen do provide a cause of crime, this can be explained better by
Marxist thinkers, and they do not provide a solution to the lack of opportunities and legitimate means to
reach the shared goals so is limited in its utility.
As stated earlier, a further explanation of crime and deviance is the different values that the working
classes hold which means that they gain status and fulfil their goals through committing crime. Miller
outlines the working-class focal concerns as masculine ideals (which can explain aggressive, non-
utilitarian crime as a way of presenting as a masculine person), as well as intelligent (in terms of
outsmarting people in positions of power, including the police, which can explain the utilitarian acts
done against people with money). However, functionalist Matza criticises Millers position as he argues
that we all have deviant thoughts, but it is the poor socialisation that the working classes have which
means that they drift into subterranean values and actions, resulting in criminal acts. Both functionalist
positions focus heavily on working class crime and neglects white collar crime which is also frequent in
society and therefore they fail to provide an account of all crime but are limited in their scope.
Finally, functionalists argue that when the interconnected social institutions are distanced and
dysfunctional, it leaves a gap for crime because people do not value maintaining society as a safe place.
Hirshi argues that we have bond to society, such as moral beliefs, attachment to fellow members and
commitment to family life and work which force us to stay in line because we do not want to risk the
attachments that we form. However, when these bonds weaken crime and deviance occurs because
there is no longer anything to lose and therefore no informal social control to prevent deviant thoughts
turning into action. This can explain how people who are unemployed or have absent parents are
statistically more likely to commit crime so does have merit. However, there are still many issues with
this theory. Firstly, it ignores white collar crimes, where middle class people have strong social bonds
and yet commit crimes despite having more to lose than most working-class persons who do not commit
crimes and it does not explain the disparity in social bonds for different people. Furthermore, Marxists
would argue that this is victim blaming those which capitalism has failed as they do not have the
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