welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video on functionless theories of crime and deviance looking at the work of travis hershey hershey's approach to crime and deviance differs from other functionalist theorists while he suggests that social control and social order are maintained through the process of socialization he also examines the rationale behind why people do not commit crime rather than why they do hershey's theory suggests that individuals are controlled by their bonds of attachment to society and this is why they do not deviate he suggests that it is the negative impacts of crime on society and the attachment and integration into society that acts as a deterrent which stops people from committing crime hershey claimed there were four distinct bonds that people experienced when they were fully integrated into society and that these control the behavior of people hershey's bonds were attachment belief commitment and involvement and let's look at those in more detail firstly attachment according to hershey people have goals and they try to achieve these goals through certain activities now these include employment education family life community involvement these attachments control the behavior of individuals as they know that any criminal behavior could disrupt these bonds and not allow them to take part in those activities that give them a sense of pride this leads people to conform to society's norms and values knowing that if they deviate from these it may cause them to lose out on future opportunities for example a criminal record might exclude them from taking up certain occupations a second factor is belief and this refers to the individual's belief in the norms and values of society the extent to which they agree with what society values and how society suggests they should act this is dependent upon the strength of an individual's socialization into a valued consensus and it offers an explanation for why theorists of the new right suggest that inadequate socialization leads to the development of a deviant underclass in preventing crime the extent to which an individual believes in the morality of society and the acts deemed to be deviant will impact on their ability to be deviant now this can be offered as an example of how some religious groups are less criminal than others because of their belief in certain moral codes a third factor is the level of commitment to a society that the individual has now the daily interactions within the community mean that those who are committed are unlikely to want to go against the wishes of others within that community and therefore they conform and this includes being protective of the interests of others within the community and it prevents criminal behavior because of any shame or social stigma that this might carry for the individual it also explains why those who are pushed to the margins of society are more likely to display deviant behaviors in part because they've been excluded from society the final bond hershey regards is involvement now this refers to the extent to which people are involved within their local community this controls the level of criminality as it means people with extensive commitments are less likely to have time to commit crimes it also has the effect of people feeling part of their community and becoming aware of the damage that criminal behaviors can do to a community involvement in society allows people to alleviate any frustrations that they have with other aspects of their life particularly employment as they can obtain status through their work in the local community and being part of it so how does hershey explain that crime does occur well he suggested that the absence of these controlling factors can lead people towards committing criminal or deviant acts however he also noted that a lack of social bonds on its own is not sufficient to explain criminal behavior instead he suggested that there need to be opportunities to commit crime a lack of integration and inadequate socialization into society can impact on an individual's desire to conform to that society with those being rejected more likely to commit crimes whilst those who were embedded in the community they seek to preserve the common good as a control theory hershey suggests that it is circumstance that dictates an individual's potential to commit crime and acknowledges that anybody can be criminal which is a departure from other functionalists who focus specifically on working class males however it offers little in the way of an explanation as to how crime is caused or the specific nature of criminal behaviors it also assumes like many functions theories that the bonds of society have meanings to all members of society it doesn't explain why some people who are not criminal choose not to integrate into society that concludes this cheated to you sociology topic video on functions theories of crime and deviance looking at the work of travis hershey thanks for watching