One Thursday at Loblaw’s Superstore, I was shelving chips in the aisle next to a woman browsing through the baby section like any other customer would. A few minutes later, I caught her stealing baby formula and had no choice but to report it to the manager. I was sent upstairs with the woman to the Loss Prevention room, where the footage was reviewed for further proof. Five hours later, police arrived and the woman was charged and I could go home. This experience gave me a broader perspective of the significance of law in societies and the reasoning behind the action of a criminal, through the eyes of a functionalist.
Functionalism demonstrates how every component in society has a purpose. These components function together to maintain stability …show more content…
The woman in my story was caught stealing baby formula, an expensive necessity to provide for a child. This act was out of desperation and low self-control (Brym and Lie 2012). She may not have been able to afford the product on her own and reverted to stealing it. Later it was found that this woman was a single mother with a new-born daughter, which can provide an explanation for her actions. Women are generally lower income earners than men (Brym and Lie 2012). Along with that, this woman could have been discriminated in more than one way because she was of Indian descent with little English speaking skills and therefore, lacked social networks. This formed a barrier between herself and a stable job with an income sufficient enough to support her family. She fell into the category of poverty, where most of her income went towards necessities such as food, bills, and mortgage, and did not have money to spare for luxury, but still necessary products such as baby formula (Innocente 2015). This demonstrates how discrimination can lead to disadvantages in economic success, where one does not have resources or opportunities given to them (Brym and Lie 2012). This sense of lower class is proven to have a strong correlation with street-crimes, displayed by this lower class mother, working a minimum wage job, who could not afford to purchase baby formula leading to a strain (Innocente
Functionalism demonstrates how every component in society has a purpose. These components function together to maintain stability …show more content…
The woman in my story was caught stealing baby formula, an expensive necessity to provide for a child. This act was out of desperation and low self-control (Brym and Lie 2012). She may not have been able to afford the product on her own and reverted to stealing it. Later it was found that this woman was a single mother with a new-born daughter, which can provide an explanation for her actions. Women are generally lower income earners than men (Brym and Lie 2012). Along with that, this woman could have been discriminated in more than one way because she was of Indian descent with little English speaking skills and therefore, lacked social networks. This formed a barrier between herself and a stable job with an income sufficient enough to support her family. She fell into the category of poverty, where most of her income went towards necessities such as food, bills, and mortgage, and did not have money to spare for luxury, but still necessary products such as baby formula (Innocente 2015). This demonstrates how discrimination can lead to disadvantages in economic success, where one does not have resources or opportunities given to them (Brym and Lie 2012). This sense of lower class is proven to have a strong correlation with street-crimes, displayed by this lower class mother, working a minimum wage job, who could not afford to purchase baby formula leading to a strain (Innocente