Reading Durkheim through the prism of criminology: from The Division of Labour in Society to The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

Matthieu Béra

Chapter 18 in The Elgar Companion to Émile Durkheim, 2026, pp 310-329 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In this chapter, we want to show that Durkheim's criminal sociology (his criminology or sociology of crime, of punishment) can serve as a criterion for periodizing his work, from beginning to end. In a first phase (around 1887–1897), his criminal sociology is clearly central. From this period, he developed a sociology of solidarity based on a typology of punishments, exemplified by The Division of Social Labor. He also presents methodological reflections on the normal and the pathological and on forms of criminal punishment (The Rules of Sociological Method). At the end of this period, he wrote Suicide (1897). A second period (1898–1907) marked a break with the past, with the introduction of his sociology of religion, albeit with a focus on criminal issues and perspectives. He focused on prohibitions (taboos) and obligations (totem veneration), and their repression in the event of non-compliance. A final phase (1902–1914) opened his work to a religious sociology freed from its criminological perspectives.

Keywords: Crime; Religion; Punishment; Pathological; Suicide; Taboos (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035322923
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