Negatively perceived sociological phenomena, according to Durkheim, are most likely performing a societal function. According to Schneider, Durkheim’s theory states that society may overlook the fact that there are events about which people have little notion of why they arise or if they are positive or detrimental.
Furthermore, Durkheim emphasized this by using the illustration of the appendix, which appears to have no function in the body but exists. Society’s perceptions of right from wrong are based on what causes these negatively seen processes to be closely scrutinized and focused on by the community, not logic.
As Durkheim points out, the child abuse problem has become less severe over time regarding what is considered criminal or has the most harmful influence on society. When individuals end one particularly heinous activity by declaring it inhumane and unlawful, their attention is directed to the next, even more, egregious habit that was previously deemed wrong.
Child abuse was chosen as the illegal activity examined because many persons over the age of fifty can verify that physical punishment is permissible and necessary. Seeing an out-of-control child with a yelling parent in public causes those people who have been harshly disciplined to consider how much the youngster needs to be appropriately corrected.
Spare the rod, but indulge the youngster once more. Often, communities associate the process of disciplining their young ones with a firm hand so that they grow up to be less likely to engage in unethical behavior as adults.
There was a leaflet for new parents at a Christian church in a local area in the United States. The images that stuck out the most were a miserable toddler yelling at his parent and a tattooed, thuggish inmate dressed in full orange attire, serving a prison sentence with bars displayed.
Though functionalism provides no rationale for people’s acts other than the result, it is sometimes enough to believe that the unpleasant behaviors of one or a few people contribute to rot in the entire community. This is where it varies from social deviance, which emphasizes those evil causes situations primarily to get worse.