Does Society Need Crime (As Postulated By Durkheim) Discuss

"Does Society Need Crime (As Postulated by Durkheim)? Discuss."
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"Does Society Need Crime (As Postulated by Durkheim)? Discuss."
Emile Durkheim argues that it is not possible to imagine a society that is not affected by crime, but it can be argued that a society does not need crime for it to be functional. Durkheim proposed a theory that argues that there are two main reasons why crime is inevitable in a society. To start with, people are socialized differently and this implies that some individuals may not be socialized in an appropriate manner and they end up acquiring deviant behaviors. Therefore, absence of acceptable socialization implies that some people fail to adopt the societal values and norms and this leads them to criminal behaviors (Crowther-Dowey, 2007). Second, the contemporary societies are not only complicated, particularly in major cities, but they are also composed of individuals who originate from different cultural backgrounds. This leads to the formation of diversified subcultures whose values and norms are not aligned to the mainstream society. This paper analyzes Emile Durkheim’s arguments on the existence of crime in the society.
The normality of crime, as introduced by Durkheim, can be argued as an ideology that criminal behavior can become a normal aspect of the society. Scholars who have researched on various aspects of criminology have tried to examine the various aspects of criminal behaviors as well as the cause of crime. It is important to note that the causation of crime can be attributed to numerous factors, which include external issues such as population densities or external densities such as economic and sociological factors. However, Durkheim argues that the only explanation that can be directed towards crime causation pertains to the “very nature of the society” (Barlow & Decker, 2010). Therefore, individual behavior is more of a “product” and not an “author” of the society.
In his works, Durkheim underlines on the nature of wrongdoing, its causation as exclusively in light of the material world. He dismisses all meanings of wrongdoings, according to the conventional of any general public, as acts that are destructive to society. In addition, Durkheim says that all violations and criminal behaviors tend to affect the general public. For a given society, criminal behaviors are found in all solid consciences. In this respect, a wrongdoing is a freak conduct simply because it conflicts with social standards (Franzese, 2009). From this point of view, the humanist appears to embrace the legitimate meaning of wrongdoing, as any demonstration that the law makes punishable. However, not at all like the defenders of that lawful definition, Durkheim holds the view that the said demonstration deserves to be treated fairly, and the law serves a noteworthy social capacity which is to help and console a similar social standards or laws of a general public.
Durkheim suggests that an individual can be described as a small image of the society which he lives in, which is the main causation of his behaviors, whether he is a criminal or not. Furthermore, to determine the criminality of an individual’s behaviors, one must first examine the society which the person lives in. Therefore, Durkheim argues that crime is “immanent in society and results from social interaction” (Vito, 2006). This implies that criminality originates from the very nature of humanity, which is intrinsic to the personality of an individual. Durkheim also says that crime is an issue that normally takes place in the society, and his theory is based on the beliefs that crime tends to serve a specific social function. Moreover, he adds that crime is a crucial aspect that takes place in the society, arguing that it serves a social function. The social function is based on the fact that crime may be impossible to eliminate in a functional society.
From the above components, one would derive that as indicated by this hypothesis, a crime is apparently an issue that increasingly takes place in the society. Durkheim proposes that a crime or a wrongdoing is ordinarily caused by or comes about because of social associations, and it isn't freak in essence unless so proclaimed by the laws or social standards. This is apparently Durkheim's prominence in the field of criminology which rests upon his research on criminal behavior. Notwithstanding, it will be worth recalling that Durkheim distinguished the essence of wrongdoing and causation, he went further to ascribe to this marvel a specific capacity (Vito & Maahs, 2017). This is the thing that makes him not the same as other researchers in the field of criminology. He argued that crime is one of the major issues that cannot be effectively tackled in a functional society. Studies have shown that the normality and functionality of a society depends on the crime level as well as the ability of authorities to control deviant behaviors.
Not at all researchers agree with Durkheim especially when it comes to keeping up with the idea that g...