understandings of it.

“Who is doing the disapproving? The functionalist approaches to deviance, for example, have built their work around the assumption of a consensus as the product of socialisation processes. Those outside the posited consensus are then viewed as either deviant themselves, or marginal groups whose opinions are perverse and therefore unimportant.” (Mclaughlin & Muncie, 2013)

To put it another way, a change in society can lead to deviance as new ideas or laws must challenge existing values and norms. This can often lead to protests which is viewed as deviant, however, it is not a criminal act. The ‘Sociology of Deviant behaviour described it as; “Deviance is behaviour that violates a norm beyond the tolerance of a particular group, in such a way that there is a probability that a sanction will be applied.” (Clinard, 1974) Another reference of deviance from ‘Sociology of Deviant Behaviour’ is; “Deviance constitutes norm violations; but the precise nature of the norms violated, who supports them, and the degree of societal reaction to their violation represent major concerns in the definition of deviance. Some people regard certain behaviour as deviant; other do not.” (Clinard, 1974) It is evident that the universal understanding of deviant varies depending on people’s norms and values. I will explain crime and deviance further through the theoretical perspective of functionalism.

Émile Durkheim and Robert Merton are crucial to the functionalist perspective. Functionalism expresses that society consists of inter-connected institutions such as, government, family and education and for society to operate effectively, all these institutions must work in harmony to maintain social equilibrium. “Durkheim argues that a human society is not just made up of social facts, but that it works, as a social system, just like a biological system of biological facts does: this theory is called functionalism.” (Bilton, 1996) “Functionalism explains the existence of any institutionalised aspect of a society in the same way as a biologist explains the presence of an organ in the body- in terms of the function it performs in keeping the system in a stable state.” (Bilton, 1996) For society to function, crime and deviance are also needed, according to Durkheim. For example, in society there needs to be a government that allows schools