Functionalist View Of Deviance Essay

Deviance is any act seen as breaking a social norm. With deviance there is crime and punishment, but a society must have deviance to survive. The three theoretical paradigms have different interpretations on why deviance is so important to the wellbeing of a culture.
Functionalists view deviance as a rulebook that tells people what is and is not socially acceptable. People use deviance as an example to prevent the possibility of being the outcast of their society. Functionalists also believe that deviance gives advantages to the majority groups because they are often the source relied upon when determining what action is and isn’t deviant. Some people prefer to perform deviant actions because they take pride in being the outcast and different from the norm. Emile Durkheim believed that deviance has the ability to challenge societal norms that have been set. Durkheim also discussed suicides and Ammonia, which is walking out of a society because you feel like you don’t fit into it.
Conflict Theorists see deviance as a power struggle. It is an outlet for class exploitation. They believe that the first quality of deviance, its emergance in social context, applies specifically when speaking about the

upper vs. lower class treatment of deviance. Conflict theorists know that both upper and lower class citizens commit deviant acts, but they also believe that our society, and our judicial system, believes that those with more socioeconomic status are committing lesser crimes and deserve a lesser punishment in return. One common example Conflict Theorists use is White-Collar crimes. These basically consist of economic extortion cases, and the tendency for a lesser sentence for those committing them.
Symbolic Interactionism perspective studies more of how a majority comes together to decide what is deviant through theories, and less about what actually happens within a society because of deviance.

They use the Labeling Theory, which describes the process in which other individuals assign a deviant behavior to another person. During this process, the individual being targeted is likely to go through three stages that eventually leads up to them taking on the role of their label. The other major theory in Symbolic Interactionism is differential association, which explains that deviant acts are established through labeling theory, but then learned through your interactions with others. In these situations other people would be the gateway connection to

deviance.
Deviance is not just the breaking of a social norm by one person. It is a movement of people and it happens constantly without our realization. It is important for our society to have deviance, but it also is a source of several hardships and an opportunity for separation in society.