Emile Durkheim's Theory Of Crime In South African Crime: Critical Analysis

This discussion will critically discuss crime in terms of Emile Durkheim’s theory of crime and the issues of crime in our South African context. Crime is an act committed or omitted, in violation of public law, either forbidding or commanding it (law dictionary), in addition crime is the violation of norms a society formally enacts into criminal law (Macionis & Plummer, P 542, 2008). It will further more discuss the causations of crime in our current South African context and also discuss the relevance of crime in South Africa. Sources such as police station and newspaper articles will be used in this discussion.

Emile Durkheim believed that if something exists in a society it must have a purpose for existing or it must serve a specific function,

He conceptualized society as a complex system whose component parts of structure (e.g. economic activity, law, science, family structure, religion, etc) are all interrelated but whose independent function is necessary to the functioning of the whole society (Dillon, p 79, 2014). The present day society is also the same as the previously viewed society, just one or two elements of it have change, crime for example. Crime rates have rose over and above 75 percent from the time Durkheim’s findings were recorded (Raba Sotho police station, 2017). This now raises questions on whether or not crime still serves any good in the society, the answer still remains to be yes. As the crime rates increase in South Africa, so does the job opportunities of security, lawyers, judges, police and soldier’s job opportunity increases. The difference in today’s society is that crime has gone to an extent that even those people who are considered to be “rich” do perform crime. This outlines the sign of greediness. Not so long ago a well-known politician has been multiply suspected that he has committed fraud and used the states resources badly or in a way that benefited him and his family. No fines or jail time was given to him. This shows that there was a specific function that it performed as other political parties order this individual to resign on his appointed seat. This shows that crime has always been and will always be part of our growing