Durkheim on Crime

Paper Summary:

This paper explains how Emile Durkheim viewed crime as being a necessary and important part of society since crime leads to the unification of the law-abiding citizens, the strengthening of society and to the creation and promotion of change in a society. The paper looks at Durkheim's definition of crime and explores how Durkheim's theories on crime and punishment hold up today. The paper concludes that while from a personal and individual perspective, crime may not seem right, fair, or functional, crime does, indeed, serve a purpose in our societies.

From the Paper:

Today we see a lot of crime in our communities. Our rising crime rate is a topic that has people everywhere worried, wondering if and when it will hit their street. Most people would not consider crime in their state, city, or town to be a positive thing, but Emile Durkheim did see crime to be a positive aspect to society. Durkheim strongly believed that society was pretty much impossible without crime. His life work centered on the topic of crime and his utter assurance that without it a society would never develop morally. It seems a bit counterintuitive to think that society cannot develop morally if it is not having its laws violated by people who lack morals. Was Durkheim saying that criminals teach us morals? In a way, yes.
"Durkheim was originally going to follow a long tradition in the family and he began to ready himself for the rabbinate. Durkheim became interested in teaching, however, and was inspired by two of his teachers: the classicist Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges and the philosopher Emile Boutroux. Under Fustel, Durkheim studied the importance of religion in the structuring of social institutions; under Bourtoux he learned that atomism was a deceptive procedure and he insisted that each science explain phenomena in terms of its own basic principles."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Durkheim, Emile. The Rules of the Sociological Method. New York: Free Press. 1938.
• Durkheim, Emile & Coser, Lewis A. The Division of Labor in Society. The Free Press. 1984.
• Durkheim, Emile. Moral Education. Dover Publications. 2002.
• Arganis, James. Readings in Social Theory. 3rd ed. 2000.
• Lukes, Steven. Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work: A Historical and Critical Study. Stanford University Press. 1973.

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