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Functions of Deviance

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23 views2 pages

Functions of Deviance

Uploaded by

swapnadipghosh437
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Functions of Deviance: Structural-Functional Analysis

the structural-functional approach is that


The key insight of
social organization. This
deviance is a necessary element of

made by Emile Durkheim.


point was a century ago
Durkheim (1964a,
Emile
pioneering study of deviance,
Durkhem's Basic Insight In his abnormal
nothing
statement that there is
made the surprising
orig. 1893;
1964b. orig. 1895) functions:
essential
In fact. it performs four
about deviance.
creatures,
As moral
cultural values and
norms.

1. Deviance affirms

behaviors to others.
some
attitudes and
people must pretfer
of vice:
rests on an opposing idea
definition of virtue
But any
without crime.
without evil and no justice
There can be no good
morality.
is needed to define and support
Deviance

clarifies moral
boundaries. By defining
to deviance
2. Responding

people draw a boundary


some
individuals as deviant,

a college marks the


between right and wrong. For example.
academic honesty and deviance by disciplining
line between

students who cheat on e x a m s .

People typically
3. Responding to deviance brings people together.
so.
shared outrage. In doing
react to serious deviance with
ties that bind
reaffirm the moral
Durkheim explained, they
terrorist
11. 2001.
after the September
them. For example,
common
were joined by a
across the United States
attacks, people
perpetrators
and bring the
desire to protect the country

to justice. a
Deviant people push
encourages
social change.
4. Deviance
status
alternatives to the
boundaries. suggesting
society's moral
declared
deviance,
Today's
encouraging change.
quo and
tomorrow's morality
(1964b:71, orig.
become
Durkheim, c a n
immoral in
condemned as
rock-and-roll.

1895). For example.


multibillion-dollar industry
mainstream,
the 1950s, became a

About Diversity box on

few years later (see the Thinking


just a
but a necessary
not a matter of' a few "bad apples"
Deviance is thus

condition of "good" social living.


deviance
but the kind of
found in every society.
Deviance may be
The
issues they seek to clarify.
on the moral
depends
people generate
number of "erime waves."
experienced a
Puritans. for example,
1692.With each
including the
well-known outbreak ofwitcheraft in
of proper
the Puritans
answered questions about the range
response,

some of their members and condemning others


beliefs by celebrating
as deviant.

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