SOC205H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Consumer Capitalism, Mechanical And Organic Solidarity, Juvenile Delinquency
Document Summary
Emile durkheim had a considerable amount to say about crime. His ideas can be said to have had a significant bearing on the chicago school, on robert. Merton and strain theory, and on more contemporary theories of punishment. Crime, for durkheim, was those actions that offended against collective feelings or sentiments. Crime is not something that is unchanging, or has some essence. Rather, they are best understood, he argued, as violations of a moral code - what he referred to as the conscience collective of society. It is because the moral code is violated that punishment is required. According to durkheim a certain amount of crime is normal in any society: Crime is present not only in the majority of societies of one particular species but in all societies of all types. There is no society that is not confronted with the problem of criminality.
