(D4, T&L I) Functional Theory



(D4, T&L I) Functional Theory

When: Europe turn of century; America 1930's

Circumstances: Economic depression and incipient war; elite sociology

faculties insulated from economic and political crisis

Where: Harvard and Columbia sociology departments

Who: Durkheim, Parsons, Davis, Erikson

Broad view: Durkheim's organic view of society; problems in

integration of community and society; deviance as universal

and functional

Attitude: Deviance is universal, inevitable, "normal", useful.

Approach: sociological, systemic

Role: ivory tower thinkers, theoreticians untarnished by research

or direct experience.

Role: college professors of the social elite

Metaphor: "social system" ; interdependence of social order

Root cause: system default and functions

Concepts: social system, boundaries, functions, dysfunctions,

latent functions, manifest functions, integration

Variables: integration, functional value, adaptation, homeostasis

Assertions: deviance (especially crime) is inevitable, "natural",

functional. Deviance is essential to maintaining the system.

Individuals may be disposed to role of deviant by inadequate

socialization and lack of social control--important system

processes in the service of integration.

Works: Durkheim: Rules of Sociological Method; Parsons: The

Social System; Davis: Prostitution; Erikson: Wayward Puritans.

Data Source: Secondary sources; historical accounts

Product: Grand, general theory

Policy: Deviance is inevitable; implicit identification with

elite and social control

Stance: Previous theories are middle-class biased and parochial;

unsophisticated theoretically and sociologically.

Durkheim, Emile. 1938, 1966. _The Rules of Sociological Method._

Trans. by Sarah A. Solovay and John H. Mueller. Ed. by George E. G.

Catlin. NY: Free Press. (See Traub & Little, 1994, pp. 12-17)

Crime is present in all societies. As societies develop ("pass to

higher types"), the crime rate actually increases. In fact, a society

is best served if crime is kept at a kind of optimum level. Crime is

normal in that it is (1) universal, (2) intrinsic and inevitable in

social systems, and (3) useful or functional. Crime defines the social

norms, provides the context in which the social sentiments can be

expressed, organizes the social system against its perceived threats,

and strengthens the community in the expression of its norms.

A society without crime is impossible because societies (and

communities) take on characteristics as such through identifying what

they consider alien or criminal and organizing against it. Such things

as scandals and public outrages mobilize the collective sentiments

which are necessary to the viability of the a social order. Should a

society, community, or organization succeed in eliminating one form of

offense they will define new ones as bases of defining and expressing

collective consciousness. Even a society of saints will define some

areas of offense against the society.

"What confers this (criminal) character upon them is not the

intrinsic quality of a a given act but that definition which that

collective conscience lends them." Crime does not exist in the

absolutist sense but only as a quality conferred by the community;

crime lies in the social process of definition and characterization.

"The authority which the moral conscience enjoys must not be

excessive...." Progress requires that people be able to be original,

to be creative, to be idealistic.

The punishment of crime is often ineffectual and may even be

counterproductive in terms of its official function. The punishment of

crime, however, is not be explained as an effort to cure a pathology.

The purpose of punishment is often to serve other, unofficial

objectives such as the mobilization and expression of the sentiments of

the community. (Notes by D.H.B.)

Davis, Kingsley. 1937. "The Sociology of Prostitution." _American

Sociological Review 2:_ 744-755. (See Traub & Little, 1994, pp.

17-31.)

Prostitution is universal and this requires explanation. Prostitution

is possible in primates because of the sexual availability of females

outside estrus. It is made likely in primate societies because of the

social dynamics of dominance. In the use of sexual responses for

ulterior purpose, there is continuity between prostitution and

marriage. The difference in prostitution and marriage lies in their

social functions. Marriage enjoys societal approval because it

constitutes the chief cultural arrangement through which erotic

expression is held to reproduction. Prostitution is the negatively

sanctioned but necessary cultural arrangement for other froms of erotic

expression.

Prostitution of various forms (concubinage, wife exchange, religious or

sanctified prostitution) has, in fact, received social sanction in

various cultures and eras. If so, it has usually served socially

approved (familial, religious, economic) functions.

Two facts about commercial prostitution give it extraordinary vigor:

(1) it turns sexual favors to advantage and (2) it provides erotic

release of a promiscuous, non-emotionally complicating nature. Those

who argue that a change in economic considerations will provide a

remedy ignore important factors. For example, those who argue that

increasing the wages of "working girls" should solve the problem do not

take into account that (1) demand would drive the price and incentive

up in competition with ordinary work, (2) women engage in prostitution

for other than economic considerations, and (3) prostitutes are paid as

much for the loss of social status as for the "work" involved. In

socialist countries the incentive may be privilege rather than

monetary profit.

The "law-abiding" citizen customer is not usually prosecuted in

connection with prostitution. To do so would be to prosecute too many

persons ("half the population") and disrupt their essential functions

as family members and productive citizens.

Prostitution provides what legitimate institutions do not: (1) sexual

release when the prescribed means are unavailable or fail, (2) greater

variety and less judgmental sexual services, (3) sexual satisfaction

without interpersonal complication. Where the traditional monogamous

family is strong, the demand for these kinds of services will also be

strong. Thus, where the family is strong, prostitution will also be

vigorous. Unrestricted indulgence in sex for the fun of it by both

sexes is the greatest enemy of prostitution because it would no longer

provide any essential function in society. (Notes by D.H.B.)

Erikson, Kai T. 1966. _Wayward Puritans_. NY: Macmillan. (See Traub &

Little, 1994, pp. 31-39)

Erikson's analysis is focused on Puritan America but he intends his

thesis to apply to small groups, organizations, urban and rural

communities, as well as societies. Social systems are located not only

in physical places or space but also in social or cultural space. This

is say that they set themselves apart (have boundaries) in terms of

characteristics--especially those related to status considerations of

morality, justice, etc. Indeed, it is precisely such activities as

expressing the community values and norms (sins and taboos) and

sentiments (sanctions) which create the sense of community and the

capacity of the community to express itself as such. Communities do not

exist without some concept of "non-community", of the alien, of the

disapproved, of offenses against it.

The boundaries of the community become defined (and maintained) in the

critical transactions between (1) deviants, and (2) official agents of

the community. The community uses the procedures and ceremonies

associated with the prosecution of deviance to create, maintain, and

extend such moral boundaries. In this connection, it is interesting to

note that penal reform following which deviants were no longer paraded

in the public square coincided with the development of the mass media

to publicize the acts of public offenders. Community boundaries are

ever in flux and ever in need of reassertation and enforcement in vital

communities.

Procedures associated with deviance serve important functions

including: (1) the definition of the identity of the social system, (2)

the integration of the community with respect to social norms, and (3)

the mobilization of community resources in defense of its values. In

view of the importance of these functions, it should not be surprising

that the mechanisms of social control operate in fact to perpetuate

deviance. Prisons, like other such institutions, actually provide

competitive resources to offenders, teach them improved skills in their

area of endeavor, and provide a supportive subculture. The community

invests rather substantially in practices, procedures, "rites of

transition", which in fact help to institutionalize deviants in their

roles as deviants. The process of stigmatization is for most purposes

irreversible. This is a product of such factors as (1) popular

assumptions and prejudices of "the public", (2) long standing practices

of the institutions of social control, and (3) prevailing theories of

the causes and remedies of deviance. In this manner, the community

creates a "self-fulfilling prophecy" in which those it characterizes

as offenders become entrenched and, even more advanced, in their "rule

breaking." This problem has been recognized for "many hundreds of

years" without any appreciable reduction in the flow of deviants.

Hence, "the rules which apply to any kind of evolutionary thinking

would suggest that that strong forces must be at work to keep the flow

intact-- and this because it contributes in some important way to the

survival of the culture as a whole." Sociologists have been invested

in the forces creating conformity in society; they need to study more

those creating deviance which is also an essential part of the

maintenace of the social order.

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