SOC 201 Chapter 11: Chapter 11.26
Document Summary
The functions of deviance: maintenance of the status quo and social. According to conventional wisdom, society would be much better off if it could get rid of crime and deviance. Durkheim started changing at least sociologists" minds about this. If people continue to violate norms, their behavior must offer some benefit to society. Well, for one thing, criminals and deviants represent social enemies, and hating these social enemies can help unite society. Crime brings together upright consciences and concentrates them. We have only to notice what happens, particularly in a small town, when some moral scandal has just been committed. They stop each other on the street, they visit each other, they seek to come together to talk about the event and to wax indignant in common. Sociologist kai t. erikson extended durkheim"s idea that crime could be functional by noting that deviance clarifies society"s norms and moral boundaries.
