Functionalist perspective on deviance

Abstract

This paper focuses on and summarizes the functionalist perspective of deviance, the function of crimes, and how these perspectives have influenced the development of Durkheim's work, anomie, for example. In this regard, our aim is to carefully describe the contributions of important functionalist thinkers such as Emile Durkheim and Robert K. Merton, by providing a brief historical discussion that highlights their contributions to deviance and crime research. Further, we are also primarily interested in how the functionalist tradition has influenced contemporary works. In this regard, this paper focuses on the most relevant theories that are related to sources of strain including Robert Merton's "structural strain theory," Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld's "institutional anomie" and Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin's "differential opportunity theory. This paper presents these contemporary thinker's views and in addition to that it presents a detailed discussion of their major studies published since 2000.Keywords: Functionalist perspective; deviance; Durkheim; Merton; anomie; institutional anomie; micro anomie; differential opportunity Functionalist PerspectiveThe structural perspective was the dominant understanding in the sociology literature of the first half of the twentieth century. Durkheim, whose writings have played a central role in the understanding of deviance, argued that crime and deviance are not created by a small number of sick individuals, nor are these situations unnatural in any way, rather they are an essential part of society. In turn, crime performs an absolutely crucial function. Durkheim's main argument was based on the functionality of deviance in any society. Durkheim (1951) confirmed the obvious negative effects of deviance. Besides negative influences of deviant behavior, he also identified that deviance yields positive benefits for society.

Middle‐Managerial Deviance as a Response to Structural Strain: Rescoping, Reconfiguring and Replacing Norms

“…In understanding the pressures and opportunities presented by middle managers' work, we found that their position gave them sufficient agency to reach their goals, but only if they resorted to reinterpreting, appropriating, or thwarting established norms. Such findings illustrate how strain theories allow the re-insertion of the micro-perspective in how structure is enacted (see Ziyanak and Williams, 2014), a macro-micro bridging motivation that was core to Merton's (1968) theory.…”

“…In these debates, the positive-negative dichotomy returned through the question of whether deviance aimed at achieving social goals (by unsanctioned means) or at escaping the contradictions of impossible situations (Agnew, 1985(Agnew, , 2012. However, as several scholars note, these arguments over operationalization and predictive validity largely left the underlying structure of the theory intact (Featherstone and Deflem, 2003;Ziyanak and Williams, 2014). More generally, structural theories have been critiqued for their tendency to see social orders as unified, totalized and static (e.g., Blumer, 1954;Burawoy, 1982).…”