Functionalist Theory Of Deviance Essay

The study of suicide- the functionalist perspective on deviance stems originally from the work of Emile Durkheim. Durkheim saw deviance as functional for society because it produces solidarity among society’s members. He developed his analysis of deviance in large part through his analysis of suicide. Through this work, he discovered a number of important sociological points. First, he criticized the usual psychological interpretations of why people commit suicide, turning instead to sociological explanation with data to back them up. Second, he emphasised the role of social structure in producing deviance. Third, he pointed out to the importance of people’s social attachments to society in understanding deviance. Finally, he elaborated that

Observing that the rate of suicide in a society varied with time and place, Durkheim argued that suicide rates are affected by the different social contexts in which they emerge. He looked at the degree to which people feel integrated into the structure of society and their social surroundings as social factors producing suicide.

Durkheim analysed three types of suicide: anomic suicide, altruistic suicide, and egoistic suicide. Anomie, as defined by Durkheim, is the condition that exists when social regulations in the society breakdown: The controlling influences of society are no longer effective, and people exist in a state of relative normlessness. The term anomie refers not to an individual’s state of mind, but instead to social conditions.

Anomic suicide occurs when the disintegrating forces in the society make individuals feel lost or alone. Teenage suicide is often cited as an example of anomic suicide. Studies of college campuses, for example, trace the cause of campus suicides to feelings of depression and hopelessness (Langhinrichsen Rohling et al. 1998). As already noted the recent increase in suicide among returning veterans may well constitute anomic suicide, for example, if they return from war feeling as if no one understands them. Suicide is more likely committed by those who have been sexually abused as children or by those whose parents