Explain The Functionalist View Of Deviance

Alex Feltes
Professor Leifker
SOC100
10 October 2014
Functionalist View of Crime and Deviance
The main idea that functionalists have is that society is a complex unit. The founder of the Functionalist view Emile Durkheim believed that deviance is a normal and necessary because it contributes to the social order. He found four different parts of deviance:
The affirmation of cultural norms and values which meant that if we saw a person being punished for a deviant act then others will learn that the act is wrong such as public executions back then or any form of public punishment. The clarification of right and wrong somewhat ties in with the affirmation of cultural norms and values as people who witness someone commiting a deviant act be punished

then they will understand that the deviant act is wrong. One example would be a person who is caught shoplifting being arrested in front of other people or a person being drunk and disorderly is banned from a bar. In the unification of others in society, people will band together after a deviant act is committed such as the 9/11 attacks, World War Two after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, or most recently the Michael Brown shooting. People felt united to stand up to the acts and all of them felt united as a community as if the act had affected them all. Deviance can also promote social change, such as Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white person which helped sparked the Civil Rights Movement, and even the American Revolution against the British Empire.
Another Functionalist Robert Merton identified five different types of people in a society and how they respond to cultural goals and institutionalized means. He theorized that people will adapt their goals based on what their society provides to them.

Conformists accept their goals and institutionalized means society gives to help achieve them. Typically they are people who believe education and hard work will help them get to the “good life” they always wanted. Innovators are people who accept the goals of society but reject the normal means to achieve them. People who achieve their money through deviant means could be considered innovators, such as members of organized crime. Ritualists are people who reject the cultural goals but still accept the means of achieving them. A person who has no desire to gain money, power, or status is a Ritualist. They engage in the same activities every day but have given up home that their efforts will lead to the wanted results. Retreatists reject both cultural goals and the means of achieving them. They have no interest in making money, or advancing in status or power. They tend to not care about hard work or getting an education. The final class are Rebels. Rebels reject both the culturally approved goals and the means to achieve them like Retreatists but they also replace them with their own goals and means. They reject the status quo and seek to replace society with one that would better suit them a few examples could include the communist revolution in Russia but even the American Revolution against the British Empire as both changed society and nearly everyone’s way of life.