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Abstract

This paper focuses on and summarizes the functionalist perspective of deviance, the function of crimes, and how these perspectives have influenced the development of Durkheim’s work, anomie, for example. In this regard, our aim is to carefully describe the contributions of important functionalist thinkers such as Emile Durkheim and Robert K. Merton, by providing a brief historical discussion that highlights their contributions to deviance and crime research. Further, we are also primarily interested in how the functionalist tradition has influenced contemporary works. In this regard, this paper focuses on the most relevant theories that are related to sources of strain including Robert Merton’s “structural strain theory,” Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld’s “institutional anomie” and Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin’s “differential opportunity theory. This paper presents these contemporary thinker’s views and in addition to that it presents a detailed discussion of their major studies published since 2000.