Functionalist Theory of Crime


	Functionalist Theory of Crime

nhorn

6-16-2008 2:49 PM

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tags:

sociology, crime

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/fa957abf-9525-4dd9-940a-7ab8872b2b3c/80BC9319-0C22-4C72-AB7C-BC2A7F058370/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.crimetheory.com/Merton/Merton01.htm" href="http://www.crimetheory.com/Merton/Merton01.htm" style="font-size: 11px;">www.crimetheory.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.crimetheory.com/Merton/Merton01.htm"><P>Strange as it may seem at first, <I>functionalist theorists</I> argue just 
      this point! Just like many other institutionalized behaviors, crime has 
      an important function in society. For example, both <A target="Notes" href="http://www.crimetheory.com/Merton/../gallery.htm#Durkheim">Émile 
      Durkheim</A> and <A target="Notes" href="http://www.crimetheory.com/Merton/../gallery.htm#Mead">G. H. Mead</A> 
      argue that crime allows the members of a society, who are otherwise quite 
      different, to join together in condemning the criminal, a commonly perceived 
      enemy. By coming together, allowing people to see what they have in common 
      and defining themselves against what they are not, individuals acquire a 
      "collective cohesion."</P></blockquote><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/clip-icon.gif" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.crimetheory.com/Merton/Merton02.htm" href="http://www.crimetheory.com/Merton/Merton02.htm" style="font-size: 11px;">www.crimetheory.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.crimetheory.com/Merton/Merton02.htm">crime is required for <I>social 
      progress</I>. Thus <A target="Notes" href="http://www.crimetheory.com/Merton/../gallery.htm#Durkheim">Durkheim</A> 
      argues that a society must not be overly repressive: it must provide enough 
      freedom of action for the criminal to behave in ways that hurt it, in order 
      to give enough space for the "genius" to act in ways that benefit 
      it. One step ahead of the rest of us, the genius develops new and progressive 
      ways of living; thus a society lacking tolerance of such behavior will be 
      a stagnant one.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/80BC9319-0C22-4C72-AB7C-BC2A7F058370/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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