Functionalism and Crime Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by tinalou81

The study of juvenile delinq­uency provides empirical support for Durkheim's basic argument when he suggests young people have little commitment to deviant (or subter­ranean) values that threaten the moral consensus.

Matza found that, when caught, people employ techniques of neutra­lis­ation in an attempt to explain or justify their deviance.

They deny for example:
- personal respon­sib­ility ("I was drunk...")
- injury ("no-one was hurt")
- victim­isation ("they hit me first")

By seeking to justif­y/e­xplain their deviance people are showing a commitment to the conven­tional moral values underp­inning legal norms; if they don't recognise those values there would be little point trying to justify their guilt.