Merton Vs Durkheim

Merton and Durkheim are two famous sociologists that brought up the concept of functionalism. They both started “viewing deviance as a clarification of moral boundaries, affirmation of norms, and promoter of social unity and social change.” Merton has a strain theory which says members or a society are bred to desire certain goals, but many are not able to achieve them in legitimate or socially accepted ways. Cloward and Ohlin are two more sociologists, but they focus on the opportunities built and state what happens when the legitamte ways of achieving goals are not easily attainable to members of society, and show the illegitmate ways of reaching said goals (Turner, 1996).