Structural Functionalism From a Structural Term Paper

But how, then one might ask, to structural functionalists explain deviance at all? "Without deliberate planning on anyone's part, there have developed in our type of social system, and correspondingly in others, mechanisms which, within limits, are capable of forestalling and reversing the deep-lying tendencies for deviance to get into the vicious circle phase which puts it beyond the control of ordinary approval-disapproval and reward-punishment sanctions" (Parsons, cited by Gingrich, 1999, from the Social System, pp. 319-320). In short, although 'normal' people' exist within an approval-disapproval and reward-punishment network, and their behavior can be modified and controlled through schemas of approval and disapproval, rewards and punishments, psychologically deviant or anomalous persons like criminals ignore these networks. Also, deviant circles can themselves generate positive rewards and an approval and disapproval micro system that rewards 'bad' behavior, forming a subculture. As this subculture becomes eradicated, crime goes down, but as law-abiding behavior is rewarded by the community and viewed in a more positive light, this behavior becomes more, rather than less common.Structural functionalism and functionalism both took as their point of departure an idea of society as a holistic, integrated system, but structural functionalism had a much stronger emphasis on the self-perpetuation of the system. Indeed, the very name of the school implies that social institutions (which collectively form a social structure) function to maintain the harmony of the social whole" ("Structural Functionalism," AnthroBase. 2007). Policing maintains the social whole, incentives to not enter the profession have decreased while incentives to enter other law enforcement sectors have decreased, and while the subculture of crime has been rendered less functional, the sectors of society that enforce justice have become more functional.

Works Cited

Gingrich, Paul. "Functionalism and Parsons." Sociology 250.

Nov 1999. University of Regina. 31 Aug 2007. http://uregina.ca/~gingrich/n2f99.htm

Structural Functionalism." AnthroBase. 2007. 31 Aug 2007. http://www.anthrobase.com/Dic/eng/def/structural_functionalism.htm.....