(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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