CRIM3001 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6,8: Anomie, Solidarity, Organic Form
14 Jun 2018
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Dukhei, Aoie ad Modeizatio
- Durkheim argued that inequality is natural and inevitable that is not associated with
crime unless there is a breakdown of social rules
- Ko as aoie
o Occurred as a result of rapid social changes accompanying modernization
process
- Mechanical form of society (primitive)
o Each social group isolated from all other social groups and self-sufficient
o Individuals live largely under identical circumstances
o Do identical work, have same values
o Little division of labor
o Little need for individual talent
o Solidarity of society is based on uniformity of members
- Organic form of society (advanced)
o Different segments of society depend on each other in a highly organized
division of labor
o Social solidarity is no longer based on the uniformity of individuals
o Based on diversity of the functions of the parts of the society
o All societies were at some stage between both mechanical and organic
- Law
o Mechanical society
▪ Enforces the uniformity of the members of the social group
▪ Oriented in repressing deviation from the norms
o Organic
▪ Regulates interactions of the various parts of society
▪ Provides restitution in case of wrongful transactions
- To the extent that a society remains mechanical, crime is normal in the sense that a
society without crime would be pathologically over controlled
- As the society moves towards organic, it is possible for a pathological state (called
anomie) would occur, and would produce a variety of social weaknesses including
crime
Crime as Normal in Mechanical Societies
- Characterized by uniformity of lives, work and beliefs of members
- Totality of social likenesses – collective conscience
- Solidarity will come from the pressure for uniformity exerted against diversity
- Strongest form consists of criminal sanctions
- Weaker forms consist of designating certain behaviors as morally reprehensible
- Social demands are constructed so that it is inevitable that a certain number of
people will not fulful them
- Enables the large mass of people all of whom fulfill the demands of the collective
conscience to feel a sense of moral superiority, identifying themselves as good and
righteousness opposing themselves to the morally inferior transgressrs
- Sense of superiority - the primary source of social solidaruyty
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- Punishment
o Society responds with repressive sanctions
o Because without them those who are making the perpetual an costly
sacrifices would become severely emoralized
o Punishment of the criminal is necessary to maintain the allegiance of average
citizens to the social structurepunishment acts as a cisible societal expression
of the inferiority and blameworthiness of the criminal group
o Reinforces the sense of superiority an righteousness found in the mass of the
people and this strengthens the solidarity of the society
o Crime is normal because there is no clearly marked dividing line between
behaiors that are consirered criminal and those that are considered morally
reprehensible
o If there is a derease in behaviors that are designated as criminal then there
may be a tendency to move behaviors that were previously designated as
morally reprehensible into the criminal category
o Society moves them into the crime category because criminal sanctions are
the strongest tool available to maintain social solidarity
o Crime is inevitable because there is an inevitable diversity of behavior in
society
o The solicarity of the society is generated be exerting pressure for conformity
against this diversity and some of this pressure will inevitable take the form
of criminal sanctions
- Abnormal state of society would be one in which there was no crime
- Society without crime would be one that constrains the collective conscience was so
rigid no one could oppose it
o crime would be eliminated
o progressive social change would be eliminated
- social change is usually introduced by opposing constraints of the collective
conscience and those who do so are frequently declared to be criminals
Anomie as a Pathological State in Organic Societies
- but to the extent that a society is organic, the unction of law is to regulate the
interactions of the various parts of the whole
- if this regulation is inadequate, crime can result
- state of inadequate regulation anomie
- the only mechanism that can limit human appetites, according to Durkheim is
human society
- anomie (deregulation of appetites) would be worse in times of prosperity than in
times of depression, since prosperity stimulates the appetites just at the time when
the restraints on those appetites have broken down
Dukehi’s Theo of Cie
- theory of crime is presented of his overall theory of modernization – the progression
of societies from the mechanical to the organic form – three things would happen at
different times
1. in mechanical societies, the punishment of crime would remain fairly stable,
independent of increases or decreases in the bolume of criminal behavior
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2. as societities modernized (made the transition from mechanical to organic) a
greater variety of behavoiors would be tolerated, punishments would become
less violent as their pupose changed from prepresssion to restitution, and there
would be a vase expansion of the functional law to regulate the interactions of
the emerging organic society
3. in organic societieis, the volume of criminal behavior would increase during
periods of rapid social change
- Christie
o Concluded that a more limited and restricted use of criminalization is better
for the society as a whole
- Durkheim made three arguments about crime during modernization
o A greater variety of behaciors would be tolerated
o Punishments would become less violent as their purpose changed from
repression to restitution
o There would be a vast expansion of functional law to regulate the
interactions of the emerging organic society
- Wolfgang
o Found support we are currently experiencing an expeansion of acceptability
of deviance and a corresponding contradiction of what we define as crime
- Second argument has not been supported
o Spitzer
▪ Found that developed societies were characterized by more severe
punishments
▪ Simple societies were characterized by lenient punishments, which is
the opposite of Durkheims predictions
- Gurr
o Found that a great deal of other legislation was passed defining and
proscriving new kinds of offenses against morality and against collective
behavior
o The new offenses against morality rose from the effeort to apply middle class
values to all social groups
o Offenses against collective behavior arose from efforts of the elite groups to
maintain power
- D Argued that the source of high crime rates in organic societies lay in normlessness
or anomie generated by the rapid social changes associated with modernization
o Attributed the high rates of crime and other forms of deciance to the
normlessness generated by the Grench and Industrial revoutions
o Criticism: crime rates were not increasing at the time
- Modernization is associated with increases in property crime but with dereases
inviolent crime
- Durkheim argued that crime is caused by rapid social change, if that is true, this must
be true:
1. Rate of crime increase would be proportional to rate of growth
2. Theft and homicide should increase during periods of rapid growth
3. Level of development should not affect crime rates as long as the country is not
rapidly changing
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Document Summary
Durkheim argued that inequality is natural and inevitable that is not associated with crime unless there is a breakdown of social rules. K(cid:374)o(cid:449)(cid:374) as (cid:862)a(cid:374)o(cid:373)ie(cid:863: occurred as a result of rapid social changes accompanying modernization process. Mechanical form of society (primitive: each social group isolated from all other social groups and self-sufficient. Individuals live largely under identical circumstances: do identical work, have same values, little division of labor, little need for individual talent, solidarity of society is based on uniformity of members. Law: mechanical society, enforces the uniformity of the members of the social group, oriented in repressing deviation from the norms, organic, regulates interactions of the various parts of society, provides restitution in case of wrongful transactions. To the extent that a society remains mechanical, crime is normal in the sense that a society without crime would be pathologically over controlled.
