Is Crime Always Functional? (From Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Crime and Criminology, Fifth Edition, P 2-15, 1998, Richard C. Monk, ed. -- See NCJ-183062)

• NCJ Number: 183063
• Author(s): Emile Durkheim; Daniel P. Moynihan
• Editor(s): Richard C. Monk
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: Dushkin/McGraw Hill Publishing Group, Inc
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Classic sociologist Emile Durkheim theorizes that crime exists in all societies because it reaffirms moral boundaries and at times facilitates needed social changes, while former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan believes that Durkheim's views omit the possibility of too much crime, especially violent crime, so that deviance as a serious social problem is not addressed.

Abstract

Durkheim argues that deviance, including crime, is functional and exists in all societies because it is needed to establish moral boundaries and to distinguish between those who obey and those who disobey society's rules. Durkheim's approach is central to many criminologists and especially structural functionalists who attempt to determine what interaction patterns or structures exist in various groups. Durkheim selects a behavior pattern, in this case deviance, and attempts to determine what it contributes to the maintenance of society and what its consequences are. Moynihan questions the soundness of Durkheim's contention that crime is functional for societies, particularly in the context of violence in society. Moynihan argues that, on the one hand, certain classes of relatively harmless behavior are being defined as deviant if not criminal. On the other hand, he believes that moral boundaries are becoming too elastic as society expands its tolerance for serious crime. He questions whether deviance can be viewed as functional if citizens are no longer shocked by outrageous violence. 4 notes