Durkheim’s view of crime being functional has been heavily criticised. Downes and Rock argues that it is not functional for the victim or the victim’s family; Durkheim fails to explain why there is crime; his theory is not scientific and so is not falsifiable; and social action theorists see it as deterministic. Also, Marxists argue that people are selfish but only because Capitalism makes people selfish as it benefits the ruling class by causing class fragmentation and preventing class solidarity. Capitalists also profit financially from consumerism and the hard work people do in order to consume.
Regardless of criticisms, others have developed his theories. Cohen explains how crime is functional as it can work as a safety valve. In the nuclear family, the husband will become stressed from work but if he cannot be distressed by his wife then he can visit a prostitute who will be able to distress him without there being any emotional ties that could break down the family and so the man can return to the family without any destructive repercussions. Cohen also says that crime can act as a warning device – if there is a high number of truancies in schools then instead of punishing everyone who truants rules can be changed so that less people truant in the future, such as decreasing the amount of homework. Merton also developed Durkheim’s concept of anomie by using the strain theory. It says that people are biologically selfish but that it is not normlessness that causes anomie but people’s reaction to the imbalance between societies emphasised importance of success goals – money, for instance – over institutional means – education and hard work.
Merton is a Functionalist as he believes that there is consensus within society over what the success goals are and he is a social structuralist as perceives societies culture to be the cause for why people commit crime. He also believes, based on official statistics, that the working class commit the majority of crime. He said that there are five responses to the strain: conformist, innovation, ritualist, retreatist and rebellion. Conformists represent the majority of the population who share societies success goals and institutional means. Innovation represents the working class who share societies success goals but lack the institutional means so they commit utilitarian crime. Ritualist represents the lower-middle class who have the institutional means but do not have the success goals. Retreatist represents alcoholics and drug abusers who have lost the institutional means and success goals and finally Rebellion represents activists such as Hippies who do not have societies success goals or the institutional means but forge their own.
Merton’s theory is criticised as it ignores white-collar crime and is seen as deterministic by social action theorists. Marxists disagree that society defines what the success goals are but that it is Capitalists who define it as money as people are socialised by the superstructure and it benefits them as they profit and causes people to work harder. People are socialised to think that money is power so they give the power to the people with money. Cohen’s subcultural theory criticises Merton on the basis that it does not explain delinquent or collective crimes either.
Cohen’s subcultural theory was developed from his study of working class boys. He agrees with Merton that the working class commit crime and failed through institutional means due to cultural deprivation but also argued that the working class are culturally deprived. This gave them blocked access that lead to status frustration, which lead them to invert societies values and form a subculture with its own definition of success goals and means of how to achieve them.
This theory was able to explain collective crime, non utilitarian crime and delinquent crime. However, he has been criticised as his theory assumes that everybody wants societies success goals: Taylor, Walton and Young give the example of a working mum who turns down a promotion – which would of earned her more money but mean longer working hours – in order to spend more time with her child. Also, he takes official statistics at face value when interactionists show that they are socially constructed and thus invalid: police label the working class as criminals and so the middle class are more likely to not be convicted. Cloward and Ohlin criticise Cohen as he only explained crime as the cause of failing in legitimate opportunity structures but Cloward and Ohlin say that different subcultures commit different types of crime due to whether they have access to illegitimate opportunity structures. If a person fails in legitimate opportunity structures and have access to illegitimate opportunity structures – such as crime role models – they will become part of a criminal subculture by which they commit utilitarian crime to achieve success goals. If they do not have access to illegitimate opportunity structures, however, then they will form a conflict subculture where they commit non-utilitarian crime like assault or graffiti. Finally, if a person fails in both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures then they will join a retreatist subculture where they become alcoholics or drug abusers.
To conclude, functionalist theories of crime and deviance can be criticised for ignoring white-collar crime, taking official statistics at face value and believing that the working class fail in education due to cultural deprivation when it may also be caused by material deprivation. Interactionist, Becker, found that teachers label pupils based on class so that teaching is then in favour of middle class pupils so they are more likely to succeed in legitimate opportunity structures. Bernstein also said that education teaches an ethnocentric curriculum that uses an elaborated code that middle class pupils have acquired at home while working class pupils are limited to a restricted code due to cultural and material deprivation so they are more likely to fail in legitimate opportunity structures. As Functionalism is also a Right-wing theory, it believes that the law reflects the collective conscience whereas Marxists disagree. Erickson’s study of the wayward puritans found that ideology is imposed on people by people with power; thus, the law reflects the ideology of the ruling class. However, Durkheim believes that crime is inevitable but also functional and Merton states that crime is caused by societies culture that puts too much emphasis on success goals and not enough emphasis on institutional means of achieving them.
