NCJ Number
206084
Journal
Theoretical Criminology Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2004 Pages: 57-91
Date Published
February 2004
Length
35 pages
Annotation
This article critiques current empirical evaluations of Emile Durkheim’s theory of homicide and offers clarification of the core components of the theory.
Abstract
The article begins with a review of existing interpretations of Durkheim’s theory of homicide. Nine studies are reviewed that have attempted to directly test Durkheim’s theory; confusion exists in this body of literature concerning the relationship between societal development and homicide and concerning whether the focus is on the level of societal development or on the rate of societal change. The article next turns to a discussion of Durkheim’s notion of the “common consciousness.” The primary foundation of Durkheim’s theory of homicide lies in the changes in the content of the common consciousness that accompanies societal development. The next section turns to an analysis of the core elements of Durkheim’s theory as presented in Suicide (1951 [1897]) and in a lecture of Durkheim’s published in Professional Ethics and Civil Morals(1957 [1900]). The main argument is that Durkheim presented a two-part theory involving both the level of societal development and the rate of societal change, with the level of societal development taking a preeminent role. Finally, the author re-analyzes the empirical evaluations of Durkheim’s theory of homicide, underscoring their theoretical flaws. The empirical literature on this topic is criticized as distorting and oversimplifying Durkheim’s theory. It seems clear that such problems have resulted from a lack of careful reading of the “classical literature.” Figure, notes, references