Policies of Life

Emile Durkheim was strongly influenced by Auguste

Comte, usually regarded to be the founder of sociology.

Comte believed in positivism. All phenomenon that

belonged in the category of science had to be observable

and provable. To Durkheim, a social fact was a fact that had a basis in

scientific observation. In his famous study, "Suicide," he

began by pointing out a number of social facts and then

proceeded to attempt explanations based on the facts. For example: Social fact: Protestants committed suicide

more than did Catholics or Jews. Social fact: Single people

committed suicide more than did married people. Social

fact: Married people with children committed suicide less

often than married people without children, and so forth. One of his conclusions was that the more social ties a

person has, the less likely he/she is to commit suicide. In

this context, it's easy to understand the married v. single

and married-with-children v. married-without-children

phenomenon. What may not be so obvious is the

religious factor. In his time, Protestants were closer in belief to the teachings of Martin Luther, who believed

that there should be no church. However, John Calvin's

teachings about the importance of communal worship

were also influential. At any rate, Protestant churches

were more loose-knit than the very close and traditional

Catholic and Hebrew churches (synagogues).

Oh okay, how about his theory of the normality of crime

then? Durkheim believed that crime is normal because there has

been no society in history where some level of crime was

not present, and it was functional because it served to

reinforce social norms. Crime will always be present, even

in a city of saints there would be crime. The activities and

behaviours of those that were not widely understood would come to be understood as crime because it would

create an otherness and difference

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