The Sociology of Crime and Deviance

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Stephen Davies        Access to Nursing        Sociology of Crime

Access to Nursing and Healthcare Professions 2007

Sociology Assignment (3)

Group (1)

The Sociology of Crime and Deviance

By: Stephen Davies

For: Jane Simpson

        


Contents


Introduction

This assignment contains information on the theories of crime from a sociological viewpoint.  Theories in this assignment include Marxist, Functionalists, Merton’s theory of anomie and so on.  

Crime has been in society since time began and as humans have evolved, so has crime and punishment.  There are a number of reasons why criminality happens and this could be due to oppression from a capitalist system, family has a history of criminality or even to feed the family.  Many years ago criminals, who were very poor targeted the rich, would often go into town or to a neighbourhood with rich homeowners.  In modern day society criminals will usually target the house down the road of a working class man as they have exactly what the criminals want.  

Working class men in the 18th and 19th century were very different to the working class men of modern day society.  It could be argued that compared to the working class years ago, modern day working class people would be seen as being in the lower-middle class.

As time changes so does crime and this assignment will show how these changes have taken place and how some changes are a means of social control.  

A reference and conclusion are also added to highlight the main points discussed.  


Theories of Crime and Deviance

Functionalist Theory of Crime

Emile Durkheim (April 15, 1858 – November 15, 1917) was a French sociologist who is described as being the “Father of Sociology”.  Amongst his works, Emile looked at deviance in general and not at crime alone, while in the process of trying to explain social problems and patterns.  

Durkheim recognised that deviance is important to the well being of society as it acted to unify the law-abiding established by moral and legal laws.  Recognition and punishment of crimes is the reaffirmation of the laws and moral boundaries of a society.  The existence of laws and the strength thereof are upheld by members of a society when violations are recognised, discussed, and dealt with either by legal punishment (jail, fines, execution) or by social punishment (shame, exile).  Whilst violations are recognised, so is criminals and undesirables, this way social rules can be identified and maintained.  


According to Durkheim crime actually produces social solidarity, rather than weakens it as society has a general consensus of right and wrong.  Because of this, Durkheim believed that crime and deviance brought people in a society together.  When a law is violated, especially within small communities, everyone talks about it.  An example of this would be that when a law was broken meetings were sometimes held, articles written for local news publications, and in general, a social community bristles with activity when a norm is broken.   As is most often the case, a violation brings society closer together to oppose the violation, reaffirming that society's bond and its adherence to certain norms.

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A third idea Durkheim held was that deviance and crime also help to promote social change. While most violations of norms are greeted with opposition by the masses, others are sometimes not, and those violations that gain support often are re-examined by that society.  However, quite often those activists that once were considered deviant, are reconsidered and become part of the norms, simply because they gained support by a large portion of the society.  In sum, deviance can help a society to rethink its boundaries, and move toward social change, hopefully for the greater benefit of the group.  An ...

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