Safety-valve institution

Safety-valve organization or safety-valve institution is a term used in sociology to describe organizations which serve to allow discontented individuals to act out their opposition to other elements, as it were "to let off steam".[1] Safety-valve organizations reduce tensions in society and in the structural-functionalist perspective can be said to have a tension-reducing latent function.[2][3] Safety-valve organizations are outlets for behavior that is considered deviant, but cannot be eradicated from society, and such organizations prevent tensions from accumulating; thus tolerance of some deviant behavior in various safety-valve organizations prevents more serious problems.[4][5] Therefore, one of the primary functions of the deviance itself is to act as a safety-valve.[6][7] Without safety-valve organizations, interactions between certain groups would become much more limited, and conflict much more severe.[1]

Examples

Safety-valve institutions range from mostly legal and reputable (strikes,[2] arts,[8][9] and sports), to less so (pranks,[6] casinos and gambling institutions in general,[3][10] pornography[11]) to mostly illegal (prostitution[12]). Societies of different kinds vary widely in the legal status of these activities. In their most extreme, aggression in general and war in particular have also been described as safety-valve institutions.[13][14]

With regard to specific organizations, Better Business Bureau has been described as a safety valve institution, as it "mitigates conflicts between business and consumer".[1] Safety-valve organizations can exist in politics, where they provide an outlet for those dissatisfied with the political and social situation to legally organize and discuss it. For example, Saugat K. Biswas notes that the Indian National Congress was such an organization in late 19th-century India.[15] Moren-Alegret similarly discusses the Portuguese NGO Secretariado Coordenador das Acções de Legalização (Coordinating Secretariat for Legalization Actions, an immigrant association) in a similar context.[16] As an example of mostly criminal safety-valve organizations, Farchild discusses the Japanese yakuza.[17]

See also

References
  1. Margaret M. Poloma (1979). Contemporary Sociological Theory. Macmillan/McGraw-Hill School Division. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-02-396100-7. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  2. Chermesh, Ran (1 January 1977). "Strikes as Safety-Valve Institutions". Relations Industrielles. 32 (4): 586. doi:10.7202/028824ar.
  3. Mikal J. Aasved (2003). The Sociology of Gambling. Charles C Thomas Publisher. pp. 143, 173. ISBN 978-0-398-07380-0. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  4. Gennaro F. Vito; Jeffrey R. Maahs; Ronald M. Holmes (2006). Criminology: Theory, Research, And Policy. Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-7637-3001-7. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  5. Henry L. Tischler (7 April 2006). Introduction to Sociology. Cengage Learning. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-495-09334-3. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  6. Stephen A. Grunlan; Marvin Keene Mayers (1988). Cultural Anthropology: A Christian Perspective. Zondervan. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-310-36381-1. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  7. Sociology in Perspective. Heinemann. 2000. p. 533. ISBN 978-0-435-33160-3. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  8. Alan Merriam (1964). The Anthropology of music. Northwestern University Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-8101-0607-9. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  9. Journal of Mental Imagery. Brandon House. 2003. p. 61. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  10. FREY, J. H. (1 July 1984). "Gambling: A Sociological Review". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 474 (1): 107–121. doi:10.1177/0002716284474001010.
  11. Jonathan Light (2002). The Art of Porn. Light Pub. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-9720456-0-5. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  12. The Idea of Prostitution. Spinifex Press. 1 September 2008. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-876756-67-3. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  13. M. Ruse (1985). Sociobiology: Sense Or Nonsense. Springer. p. 173. ISBN 978-90-277-1798-6. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  14. Vayda, Andrew P. (1 April 1961). "Expansion and Warfare among Swidden Agriculturalists". American Anthropologist. 63 (2): 346–358. doi:10.1525/aa.1961.63.2.02a00060.
  15. Saugat K. Biswas (2008). Nine Decades of Marxism in the Land of Brahminism. Other Books. p. 97. ISBN 978-81-906019-3-1. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  16. Richard Moren-Alegret (2001). "African immigrants and their organisations in Lisbon: between social and systemic influence". In Russell King (ed.). The Mediterranean passage: migration and new cultural encounters in Southern Europe. Liverpool University Press. pp. 139–140. ISBN 978-0-85323-646-7. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  17. Erika Fairchild (1993). Comparative criminal justice systems. Wadsworth. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-534-12996-5. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
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