Law and Order

Political interest in Law and order? 1945 1959 ??????

1960s

interest increased

1979 Conservatives had fused the issues of law-breaking and order defiance

The Normality of Crime.

One theorist who thought that crime was a normal part of everyday life was that of French Sociologist Emile Durkheim (18581917).
Durkheim was a functionalist: Functionalists argue that society should be studied as a living organism all having component parts that work together and it is only through this that one can explain human nature.

Main assumptions to functionalism:

o Norms and values are the basic elements of social life. o Social life involves commitments to agreed norms and values. o Societies are necessarily cohesive. o Social life depends on mutual exchange and cooperation. o Social systems are based upon consensus. o Society recognises power as legitimate authority o Social systems are integrated and stable.

Durkheims first major piece of work - The division of Labour had several key objectives:

Nature of links connecting the individual to society and the social bonds that connect individuals to each other. Examine the specific nature of these social bonds and to see in what way these related to the overall function of social cohesion in society. See if social links change, as society became more advanced and subject to changes in the division of labour.

Mechanical solidarity
Societies whose solidarity is mechanical are based on common roots of identity and similarity. Individuals are directly linked to society through various attachments. Collective rules and social practices are predominantly religious in nature. Offences against the collective conscience are punished by repressive sanctions.

Organic solidarity
In societies whose solidarity is organic, labour is specialised and individuals are linked to more to each other than they are to society as a whole. The nature of these links stems from the development of the division of labour, where individuals become more reliant on others to perform separate economic functions, which they are not able to carry out themselves. Social bonds between individuals are enforced by contracts rather than by religion or customs as with mechanical solidarity. Systems of laws are based on restorative (repairing the harm done) sanctions.

Law and Judicial Rules

The way society punishes provides a clue to their system of solidarity. Penal Law Cause harm or suffering to the offender. Is severe and sanctions are repressive. Aim is to set examples. Contractual Law Serves to restore things to their previous state and not inflict suffering. Both are linked to mechanical and organic solidarity.

Crime and Deviance is Normal

Durkheim wished to prescribe a criterion for making judgements about healthy and unhealthy societies. He began by suggesting that just as disease can threaten the life of an organism, so it can threaten the life of a society. Phenomenon is to be considered morbid or unhealthy, only if it does not maintain its proper relationship to the dominant social institution. If a condition serves as a function in relation to the larger social framework, then it is not in itself judged as pathological. Using crime and criminal activity he suggested that although the common assumption assumes that crime is pathological, the opposite is true, demonstrating that crime is pervasive and general in all societies and is a common condition of collective life.

In essence then crime and deviance is normal because ..

Offending acts exist in all societies, thus presence points to functionality Punishment leads to binding groups together, thus establishes a sense of community Allows social change (morally) abortion, euthanasia (socially) pornography and corporate killings.