deviant or participating in any rule-breaking behaviors. Theories Deviant acts can be assertions of individuality and identity, and thus as rebellion against group norms of the dominant culture and in favor of a sub-culture. In a society, the behavior of an individual or a group determines how a deviant creates norms. Three broad sociological classes exist that describe deviant behavior, namely, structural functionalism, symbolic interaction and conflict theory. Structural-functionalism Structural functionalists are concerned with how various factors in a society come together and interact to form the whole. Most notable, the work of Émile Durkheim and Robert Merton have contributed to the Functionalist ideals. Durkheim's normative theory of suicide Émile Durkheim would claim that deviance was in fact a normal and necessary part of social organization. He would state four important functions of deviance: "Deviance affirms cultural values and norms. Any definition of virtue rests on an opposing idea of vice: There can be no good without evil and no justice without crime." Deviance defines moral boundaries, people learn right from wrong by defining people as deviant. A serious form of deviance forces people to come together and react in the same way against it. Deviance pushes society's moral boundaries which, in turn leads to social change. When social deviance is committed, the collective conscience is offended. Durkheim (1897) describes the collective conscience as a set of social norms by which members of a society follow. Without the collective conscience, there would be no absolute morals followed in institutions or groups. Social integration is the attachment to groups and institutions, while social regulation is the adherence to the norms and values of society. Durkheim's theory attributes social deviance to extremes of social integration and social regulation. He stated four different types of suicide from the relationship between social integration and social regulation:. Altruistic suicide occurs when one is too socially integrated. Egoistic suicide occurs when one is not very socially integrated. Anomic suicide occurs when there is very little social regulation from a sense of aimlessness or despair. Fatalistic suicide occurs when a person experiences too much social regulation. Merton's strain theory Robert K. Merton discussed deviance in terms of goals and means as part of his strain/anomie theory. Where Durkheim states that anomie is the confounding of social norms, Merton goes further and states that anomie is the state in which social goals and the legitimate means to achieve