Emile Durkheim's Structural Functional Theory

All human nature, everything we do, the way we act is not merely done from instinct. We do not decide one day to simply wake up and decide to become deviant. The acts of challenging ideas and committing crime are nurtured throughout our childhood and even into adulthood. How we are nurtured matters most when describing why a person acts a way they do. Does this mean we could abolish any and all crime by simply nurturing our children to avoid crime and to live a pure life? No I do not believe we societies could exist without deviance, without a challenge of ideas, a thief taking from the poor our values and norms would never exist. As Emile Durkheim’s structural-functional theory has laid out the four functions of deviance and why they exist.
Deviance is defined as the conscious tampering of social norms. The most common sector of deviance is known as crime which is the act of disobeying the laws set by the society itself. Most people would agree that the world needs less crime and more positive actions taken against criminals and even I agree with this myself, but crime serves a very important role explained by sociologist Emile Durkheim in his four basic functions of deviance. Deviance actually is not a totally bizarre mishap. Acts of deviance defines our social norms and values, what we see as right and wrong, it clearly defines the boundaries for people to interact within. Those are the first two functions that serve society. When you take a look at the recent shootings in South Carolina, as grim of an act that they were we can clearly see how his actions support the next two functions crime serves to society. Deviance unifies pools of people abroad and forces social change. The breadth of support spans globally for the victims’ families which is an example of unity. Intertwined with Dylann Roof’s act of deviance is the photographs found of him holding the Confederate State flag which has thus caused an upheaval of outcries to remove the flag because of the racial stigma associated with the flag; while the opposition showing no remorse for flying their flag claiming they have the right to due to its historical
After reviewing the texts & works of Emile Durkheim I consistently agree with his views across the board. His views and scope of deviance is quite true when you break it down into his four basic functions of redefining norms and values, clarifying boundaries for society to be contained within, uniting society together and how deviance can promote social change. I believe a world without deviance could never exist. We could exist only for so long until we started viewing actions as deviance again and it would take into a new form. Bad thoughts, ideas and actions would start to get a negative reputation within the community and thus be viewed as a deviation requiring one of Durkheim’s four functions to take