Nature of Crime CCJ 5015
Robert E. Ford
A Functionalist Perspective on Crime
Durkheim and the Normality of Crime
and the Functions of Crime
w Durkheim (1858-1917) was
interested in the industrial revolution and the changes it wrought on the social fabric. One
of the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution was increasing crime particularly in
Durkheim was a functionalist. He believed if
something exists in society it must have a purpose for existing. It must serve a function.
crime existed it is necessary to explain the functions it performed.
Durkheims Social Order
Social Order was based on:
The functional dependence of institutions in society.
Shared norms and values (the "social glue" that binds people together, such that
their relationships become functionally dependent).
Control based on:
Functional dependence at both the institutional and individual level (people need to
co-operate in order for society to function
Integration (The extent to which people are "bonded" into the rules, norms,
beliefs and so forth of the society in which they live).
Social Control Continued
Individual social relationships:
is controlled by relatively informal norms and values that develop out of the mutual need
to create and maintain dependent social relationships.)
large-scale societies the legal system develops as a functional necessity to regulate
relationships that cannot be adequately maintained by the operation of informal norms
(mainly because instrumental nature of most relationships mean that moral ties are much
theory generally argues that social behavior is a consequence of the way in which society
(as a social structure) pressurizes people. In effect, people are born into an existing
society and are taught the rules and relationships governing social behaviour. Social
behavior, therefore, is explained by changes in the social structures that produce
consequent changes in human behavior.
to social norms occurs when social structure
is under pressure (or strain).
technological change (Industrial Revolution) changes the way institutions relate to one
another. Change produces new norms, new values. Those
socialised to the "old" norms take time to adapt - there is a "time
lag" people have to be re-socialised in order to develop new norms / values that fit
with structural changes. Normative
confusion" anomie is likely to occur.
strain at the institutional (structural) level of society leads to a weakening of the
Collective Conscience and, as a consequence, increased levels of crime / deviance.
small-scale societies (rural, pre-industrial, societies), social organisation was
seen to be based upon close, personal, norms and values.
argued that since norms and values tend to be the social glue that binds people
together in groups, the combination of informal social controls, restricted
geographic mobility and the like, served as the basis for social order.
societies develop and grow, the moral ties which bind people are weakened.
They cannot be continually reinforced by close, personal, contact.
societies become more-complex in the multitude of social relationships, a mechanism
to regulate relationships has to be developed - a legal system.
systems develop to codify moral behaviour and this process lays the groundwork for
our understanding of the functions of both law and crime.
and crime function to:
the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in any large-scale society.
That is, they represent broad social guide-lines for people's behavior.
are a public form of boundary marking. They are written-down and applicable to everyone. The codification of morals into laws requires public
displays that such boundaries exist.
marking displays are made by:
mass media crime
Courts -the rituals of the legal system serve to set it apart from everyday
Durkheim and the Law
behaviour was seen to be the way in which legal boundaries were tested. Because laws were
necessarily slow to change once adopted, changes in people's behavior over time would fail
to be reflected in changes in the law,unless a mechanism existed to accommodate
behaviour, in effect, represents the dynamic force whereby people are made to
reassess the applicability of various laws. Where laws are out-of-step with general
behaviour, they need to be changed.
Finally, crime has an integrating
function, t public alarm and outrage at criminal acts serves to draw the law-abiding
closer together. This increase social solidarity (the communal feelings that people
have for one another) The bonds between
people were seen to be continually reinforced by criminal behaviour.
Durkheim was clear about the functional significance of crime, he was also aware of the
fact that too much crime in a society would create problems.
Functional Up to a Point
too high a level of crime could create problems, given the distinction that can be made
between acceptable / unacceptable forms of behaviour and the idea of values consensus
produced through socialization?
this respect, Durkheim saw that too a high a level of criminal behaviour would be
potentially disruptive (or dysfunctional) because it would seriously weaken the
moral order in society:
effect, people would no-longer know what was morally right or morally wrong and so would
be unsure as to where the boundaries of acceptable behaviour lay.
argued that the basis of social order in
industrial, societies was to be organic solidarity. Organic solidarity would produce a
collective conscience which would be the underpinning of social order.
The Collective Conscience
collective conscience represents the will of society as a whole.
a form of objective expression of the collective conscience. In
effect, laws develop out of (and are underpinned by) the collective conscience of a
argues that people are shaped by their social experiences (they experience society as a
moral force bearing down upon them) if the collective conscience is weakened, the moral
ties that bind people together are also weakened.
(or perhaps "if" ) this happens, the concept used by Durkheim to express this
weakening of moral ties was that of anomie:
concept can be taken to mean a state of normlessness - a situation in which no
norms of behavior are operating.
occurs when traditional norms of behaviour were undermined without being replaced by new
norms. In the absence, people experience feelings of anxiety, aimlessness, purposelessness
Durkheim and Anomie
a very dangerous phenomenon, when people no-longer believe in their obligations, they
revert to self-interest.
high levels of criminal behaviour weaken the collective conscience and produce anomie.
Since human beings cannot live in a state of true anomie for long, social collapse occurs
and then the establishment of some new form of moral order...
w Normal crime was
to Durkheim, crime that was not excessive.
w Durkheim argued
that every society had crime therefore it must serve some functions.
w Durkheim saw
normal crime as serving the following functions:
Normal Crime Functions
w Pressure release
of the major criticisms of Durkheim's general work in relation to crime has been
the idea that he ignores the way in which power is a significant variable in
relation to the way in laws are created and maintained in any society. Thus, whilst
Durkheim argued that the collective conscience was the objective expression
of the values held by everyone in society, Erikson ("Wayward Puritans",
1966) attempted to develop Durkheim's basic ideas about such things as the boundary
setting function of law.
did this by arguing that powerful groups within any society were able to impose their
views upon the majority by a process of ideological manipulation. Erikson used the
example of 17th century Puritanism to illustrate this idea.
analysis also showed how the act of punishing could lead to greater solidarity and
maintenance of social boundaries.
Durkheim- Suicide: A Study In Sociology, 1897; The Rules of Sociological
Erikson Wayward Puritans,1966
Merton- Social Structure and Anomie, 1938.