The French sociologist Émile Durkheim has very strong beliefs when it comes to crime , he believes that the part crime plays in society reflects society its self there for he believes tha crime serves as a huge social function. By saying this he is saying that laws are something that ar always changing and always open to necessary change and he believes that society should be the same .although he does not believe crime as a whole is benificial , he believes that there are 2 different sides to crime as with anything , a possitive and a negative.
Durkheim’s therory expalins that any society does in fact need a limeted amount of crime in it to function , he believes that society is based around the norms and values that we are taught , these values control society and guide our actions, this is known as the collective conscience . collective conscience is the idea that a person is brought up to know what is right and wrong whether it is through legal means or just innappropriate for society, there our boundaries that show us these norms but as with anything these boundaries are sometimes blurred or unclear, this is where crime comes in , by people committing crimes and therefor being punished for their actions that is then setting an example to the rest of society nto to commit these actions this is known as reaffirming the boundaries. So bad things arent always unnessesairy , another example being that these boundaries can be unclear at times but that may be good as it makes it easier for them to be changed over time when necesair to society for example in certain cases that are taken to court there may be prostests against the decisions , these are caused by a degree of sympathy from the public , in cases like this these laws may be changed , some popular examples of this are those of drugs such as cannabis and how many people have different views on what the laws on it should be . my last point on how durkhiem describes crime and devience to be