Week Five: Lecture Notes
Functionalism : focused on the impact of institutions and behavior on the society as a whole. If one
persists in time, it must have a beneficial function. Institutions and behaviors dysfunctional are
eliminated over time.
--Assumes social control is automatic and inevitable.
--Assumes social control serves the interest of society as a whole.
a. Certain actions are dysfunctional or harmful to society threatening its existence. Society
must
discourage this behavior.
b. Society draws its moral boundaries and sets examples for others when harmful or deviant
behavior is punished. For societies to survive, some actions must be encouraged while
others punished.
c. Deviance has existed since man crawled out the slim, it is in this way functional. In
controlled
amounts, certain types of deviance may be functional for society.
Durkheim on deviance
 Durkheim said deviance was "normal" to all healthy well-functioning societies.
 Functions of deviance:
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affirms cultural values and norms
clarifies boundaries
promotes solidarity
encourages social change
Part I: The "Normality of deviance"
 All societies have some level of crime and deviance.
 100% socialization is impossible
 Durkheim noted there could be no “society of saints.”.
 “uniformity is impossible to achieve”
Durkheim: "crime is the price a society pays for creativity."
 relationship between deviance and progress
 paves the way for new ideas
Talk about manifest and latent functions
On c,
--Merton: Bossism and urban political machine, also Italian mafia.
--Bell: Organized Crime, ladder of success to ethnic groups who might otherwise cause trouble
--Another scholar argues that crime is an industry like any other, it contributes to the economy
For example, what about prostitution? How can it be argued that prostitution is functional for
society?
Points about Functionalism:
When determining if certain behaviors have a positive of negative function, we must consider for
who, that is which segment of society (rich or poor, black or white, men or women, etc.)
For example: social stratification
In other words: Function for Whom
Functionalism largely discredited but made important contributions
purged automatic implication of pathology
changed focus from why deviant behavior to why social control
Related question: Why do so many people conform?
Interactionist Analysis
 Labeling theory
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moral entrepreneurs can attach labels
a deviant is a person who has been successfully labeled.
focus is on process, not act.
process is related to power of labelers
definitions of primary deviance and secondary deviance