Social Phenomena - Essay Example

Each of these views relies upon more or less legitimate arguments and evidence, but neither of them is flawless. Functionalist perspective still remains arguably the most influential tool for understanding the phenomenon of deviant behavior. Since the term 'deviant behavior' is rather broad, only two types of social deviance will be closely analyzed within this project: crime and suicide. Functionalist explanation of the causes and social outcomes of these types can lead us to understanding of functionalist perspective on deviant behavior in general.

Emile Durkheim, the famous French sociologist of the 19th - 20th century, was probably the first scholar to adopt the logic of the functional approach studying the phenomenon of deviant behavior. Thus, Durkheim claimed, "When . . . the explanation of a social phenomenon is undertaken, we must seek separately the efficient cause which produces it and the function it fulfills. We must determine whether there is a correspondence between the fact under consideration and the general needs of the social organism, and in what this correspondence consists" (Durkheim, 1930 in Coser, 1977: 143).

Ut Utilizing these principles Durkheim focused on the way a society stimulates individuals demonstrate deviant behavior than on individual characteristics of those whom demonstrate such behavior, though majority of sociologists of those days viewed crime, suicide, and other forms of social deviance as an outcome of inborn psychological characteristics of the individual. Durkheim considered such approach flawed. Instead, the scholar argued that deviance in general and crime in particular was by no means abnormal or dangerous for the society: "Crime is normal, an inevitable and necessary part of every society [although] it may take abnormal forms, such as when the crime rate is unusually high (Durkheim, 1961: 872).

Durkheim's views on another form of deviance - suicide - were absolutely the same. "La Suicide" was the third major work of Emile Durkheim. This book was the first sociological research that established the traceable empiric connection between the phenomenon of individual suicide and social environment, and defined certain social functions of suicide. In the end of the 19th century suicide or self-destruction was considered a form of deviant behaviour that occurred in insane individuals. Durkheim challenged this traditional standpoint that suicide was an unpreventable pathology.

Instead, he provided " a sociological explanation for a phenomenon traditionally regarded as exclusively psychological and individualistic" (Thompson, 1982: 109). In fact, Durkheim formulated the founding principles of functionalist perspective on deviance precisely in his study of suicide. Even today, despite abundance of recent studies, Durkheim's work remains the most significant sociological analysis of suicide in modern societies.Suicide is a complex phenomenon that can be caused by numerous factors.

Many reasons both individual and social have been demonstrated to have certain correlation with self-destructive