Durkheim theory of social function - Essay Example

Therefore according to Durkheim the existence of crime was and is normal as it has a function in the society. In the case of mark who has been involved in criminal activity it is clear that the society has a mechanism to cater for the crimes, there is the existence of guards and also there is the residential care. These are mechanism in the society to take care for the unlawful in the society. This is according to Durkheim view that crime and deviance in the society is a normal thing and that the parts of the society have a function to play for the proper function of the society.

According to Durkheim the society is structured and there exist those roles in the society that are not of much importance to the running of the society, therefore these results into inequality in the society, therefore the issue of inequality and poverty in the society according to Durkheim is a natural thing in the society which is caused by the role importance of individuals. Inequality in our case study is evident from our case study, the inequality displayed in the case is where mark is the first to sit for a state examination in the family, this is inequality displayed in marks family whereby all the other member have not done any state examination but Mark has sat for one.

This is inequality in society which is displayed in terms of education level attained.Suicide Durkheim analysed suicide with the use of social integration among groups, he compared the suicide rate among the Protestants and Catholics. In his research he found out that the Protestants had higher suicide rates than Catholics due to the existence of social integration that existed in the two different groups. In the society today people are more likely to commit suicide if there is weak social integration with the other individual in the society as predicted by Durkheim.(2) Marx's theory Karl Marx theory on capitalism discusses the issue of inequality that exists in a capitalist society.

According to Marx the society in a capitalist form of society has two groups of people, those who own the means of production and the labourers. According to him the capitalist society is characterised by inequality whereby the bourgeoisies are the ones with wealth and that the labourers work for the owners of the wealth to create wealth. The majority of the people in the society according to Marx are poor because of the capitalist form of society whereby only a few people hold the wealth while others do not have and this is why there is inequality in the society.

Therefore there exist inequality in the society because of the capitalist form of society and the only way to get rid of the problem of inequality is through the adoption of the communist form of society, the communist form of society is characterised by equality whereby the wealth in the society is shared by all members of the society and the means of production are owned by the society as a whole and not by individuals. For example in the society we live in today the people who hold wealth are few while those who don't have the wealth are the majority, further those who have the wealth employ those without the wealth and pay them less than they have worked for, this is the capitalist so