Assess the view that crime is functional, invetiable and normal

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Sociology

(b) Using material from Item A and elsewhere, examine some of the ways in which sociologists have linked their explanations of crime to one or more of the following areas: families and households; health; mass media (12 marks)

Item A suggests that the family is the key insitituion in generating law-abiding behaviour. One way in which sociologists have linked their explanations of crime to the study of families and households, is by suggesting that the family was key to understanding the causes of crime. Some argue that the correleation between crime and certain family chracteristics is a reflection of a much wider change in society. They see that the three-generation family structure had provided stability and place in which moral values and sense of community belonging had been passed on. They also  suggest that the changing roles of women in the family; the increasingly dominant role of the mother in the househols had led to the margunalication of the father, this led to fathers leaving their families, resulting in young males not having role models on which to base thier behaviour, and do not face the discipline at home that a father might provide.
        Another way in which they have linked their explanations of crime to families and households, si by suggesting that the growth of cohabitiation has undermined the belief that patnership is for life, as is supposed to occur in marriage. This is said to weaken the general moral fabric of society and demonstrates that values and commintments are not fixed and permanent, but flexible. This is said to weaken the idea of strong central values which form the basis of society, and strenghtens the view that morals are relarive and negotiable.

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(c) Asses the view that crime is functional, invetiable and normal (40 marks)

Durkheim (1982) suggested that crime was necessary for any society. He argued that the basis of society was a set shared of values that guide our actions, also known as a collective conscience, which provided a framework with boundaries, which distinguishes between actions that are acceptable and those that are not. He suggests that the there are three elemenets of this positive aspects. One positive aspect is reaffirming the boundaries, this meant that everyttime a person breaks a law and is taken to courts, the resulting court ...

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