Evaluate the view that structuralist theories of crime place too much emphasis upon the social structure as a stimulus to crime and not enough on the meaning of the act to the individual.

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Vickie Annear

Evaluate the view that structuralist theories of crime place too much emphasis upon the social structure as a stimulus to crime and not enough on the meaning of the act to the individual.  (50 marks).

In crime and deviance, the main two stucturalist theories are Functionalism and Marxism. Structuralist theories in sociology give priority to the analysis of social structures, rather than the individual. Both Functionalist and Marxist theories are macro theories, this makes them top down as they look at how society shaped the individual.

Emile Durkheim is a key functionalist who suggests that societies could only exist if the members shared certain common beliefs which he called the ‘collective conscience’. Functionalists believe that every part of society has a function and compared society to the human body, claiming that each part of society has to do its job in order to function properly just as in the human body.

However, Marxism, a perspective that emerged from the work of Karl Marx stresses the role of conflict in society. They believe that the ruling class exploit the working class and that laws are a key tool in this process. The ruling class creates a dominant ideology creates a false consciousness which is a belief that society is fair, this is Marxists explanation as to why the working class do not revolt against their exploitation.

Durkheim’s view on crime and deviance is that it is central to any understanding of how society functions.

He identified both positive and negative aspects of crime.

He suggested that a certain, limited amount of crime was necessary for any society. He argued that crime reinforces the collective conscience in a society; it provides boundaries and distinguishes between actions which are acceptable and actions which are not. He claims that it is when these boundaries are unclear that it causes problems, by clarifying the boundaries it ensures that only a limited amount of crime takes place. Specifically Durkheim identified three positive aspects of crime. A real life example of this comes from the Soham murder trial of Holly and Jessica, it bought the whole nation together in mourning of the tragic death of those innocent young girls, and this behaviour is clearly not acceptable.

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The first of these is ‘Reaffirming the boundaries’, this takes place every time a person is taken to court and prosecuted for their wrong doing. This is particularly clear in societies where public executions take place.

The second of these positive aspects is ‘changing values’. Every now and again when a person is taken to court there is a degree of sympathy for the outcome of the case. This can result in a public outcry and a change in the law. An example of this comes from the case of R v R (1991) the first time rape within marriage ...

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