Title: 
Headings: The Normality of Crime: Durkheim and Erikson John Hamlin Department of Sociology and Anthropology UMD  The idea that crime might be a normal part of society seems untenable to many people.  Yet it is the major tenant of the functional theory of crime.  The idea found in Durkheim that the amount of deviance remains relatively stable over time, refers to a number of different but interrelated aspects of his theory of society.  To begin with a good deal of what Durkheim says in reference to deviance is found in, The Rules of Sociological Method.  One of his concerns in this work, as in his work Suicide, is to demonstrate that sociology has a unique object of study, moral life.  As he states in Suicide, there can be no sociology without societies and societies cannot exist if there are only individuals.  There is a moral reality greater than the individual.  With societies and moral order represented by the conscious collective, there exists social facts which themselves are external to the individual.  These social facts hold a moral authority over individuals in society and help keep social order stable.  According to Durkheim deviance is not a pathological aberration in the character structure of particular individuals, but rather, it is ‘an integral part of all healthy societies.’  Because crime is found in all healthy societies it must be performing some necessary, positive function or else it would disappear as societies progress and become more complex and civilized.  Crime is normal because a society without crime would be impossible.   Behaviors considered unacceptable have increased, as society progresses not decreases.

Content: As
 
second
 
source
 
of
 
change
 
in
 
deviance
 
rates
 
would
 
accompany
 
the
 
development
 
of
 
anomie. When
 
the
 
individual
 
and
 
the
 
collective
 
conscious
 
are
 
no
 
longer
 
in
 
tune
 
with
 
one
 
anther
 
the
 
individual
 
is
 
lost
 
as
 
the
 
moral
 
authority
 
fails
 
to
 
regulate
 
the
 
desires
 
and
 
needs
 
of
 
the
 
person. A
 
third
 
source
 
of
 
increased
 
deviation
 
results
 
when
 
the
 
cult
 
of
 
the
 
individual
 
runs
 
amuck. The
 
cult
 
of
 
the
 
individual
 
refers
 
not
 
to
 
particular
 
individuals
 
but
 
rather
 
to
 
the
 
belief
 
that
 
human
 
beings
 
in
 
the
 
abstract
 
are
 
individuals. When
 
individuals
 
begin
 
to
 
take
 
this
 
ideology
 
too
 
seriously
 
and
 
begin
 
to
 
act
 
more
 
and
 
more
 
independently,
 
holding
 
little
 
regard
 
for
 
the
 
solidarity
 
of
 
the
 
moral
 
order,
 
deviance
 
rates
 
will
 
again
 
fluctuate
 
away
 
from
 
the
 
normal. All
 
of
 
this
 
aside,
 
if
 
a
 
given
 
society
 
is
 
operating
 
in
 
its
 
normal
 
mode
 
the
 
rate
 
of
 
deviance
 
will
 
remain
 
relatively
 
stable. This
 
will
 
be
 
true
 
regardless
 
of
 
the
 
individuals
 
who
 
made
 
up
 
the
 
rates
 
or
 
their
 
motives
 
for
 
committing
 
deviant
 
acts. The
 
individual
 
committing
 
a
 
deviant
 
act
 
may
 
indeed
 
be
 
pathological; the
 
rate
 
however,
 
is
 
not. Perhaps
 
Durkheim’s
 
clearest
 
example
 
is
 
in
 
his
 
study
 
of
 
suicide.