Why did Emile Durkheim say that crime is both normal and functional? Illustrate your answer with examples.
Introduction
Sociologists have dedicated their lives trying to understand people’s social behaviour. Where it originated and developed to understand the fundamentals of a person’s behaviour and why they do the things they do, that cause social change, order and disorder. Emile Durkheim, father of sociology and the most famous sociologists to have lived, he is well know for his theories on Functionalism, Anomie and Division of labour. Emile Durkheim’s theory on criminology showcases how it is a normal part of everyday society and plays an important role in keeping society in balance. Criminals re enforce the idea that there are social norms in everyday life …show more content…
Crime creates a large amount of jobs for police, courts, lawyers, prisons and much more. If everyone lived in a perfect society there would be no reason to have half of the jobs mentioned. It is important to think about what is considered a crime. If what is considered a crime now and was to be irrelevant and ceased tomorrow would other traits of human behaviour be classified as criminal and deviant. Societies are the ones who control what is morally right and wrong and it changes all the time. Deviance is only the perspective of someone else opinion and they could have different views than someone else in society. Functionalist theory looks at society as a whole and not as individual when analyzing deviance and crime. Maintaining values is a major part in the functioning of a society, as Durkheim believes shared values brings people together as a society. In Sociology.org.uk (n.d, p.4) Durkheim is suggesting that crime only becomes dysfunctional when it becomes unusually high or low, arguing that social change begins with some sort of deviance. For changes to occur, todays normalitiy is yesterdays
Introduction
Sociologists have dedicated their lives trying to understand people’s social behaviour. Where it originated and developed to understand the fundamentals of a person’s behaviour and why they do the things they do, that cause social change, order and disorder. Emile Durkheim, father of sociology and the most famous sociologists to have lived, he is well know for his theories on Functionalism, Anomie and Division of labour. Emile Durkheim’s theory on criminology showcases how it is a normal part of everyday society and plays an important role in keeping society in balance. Criminals re enforce the idea that there are social norms in everyday life …show more content…
Crime creates a large amount of jobs for police, courts, lawyers, prisons and much more. If everyone lived in a perfect society there would be no reason to have half of the jobs mentioned. It is important to think about what is considered a crime. If what is considered a crime now and was to be irrelevant and ceased tomorrow would other traits of human behaviour be classified as criminal and deviant. Societies are the ones who control what is morally right and wrong and it changes all the time. Deviance is only the perspective of someone else opinion and they could have different views than someone else in society. Functionalist theory looks at society as a whole and not as individual when analyzing deviance and crime. Maintaining values is a major part in the functioning of a society, as Durkheim believes shared values brings people together as a society. In Sociology.org.uk (n.d, p.4) Durkheim is suggesting that crime only becomes dysfunctional when it becomes unusually high or low, arguing that social change begins with some sort of deviance. For changes to occur, todays normalitiy is yesterdays