If deviation in society becomes the rule and hedonistic-egoistic action as well as human instincts take over, there is the danger of an anomie. Only an excess of crime is an indication of a lack of observance of social rules and a dwindling collective consciousness. Criminality is therefore functional in a society based on the division of labour and affirms collective consciousness. Only through the deviation itself and the sanctioning of the breach of the norm does the validity of the norm become visible to all members of society and confirm its validity. On the contrary, crime in modern societies characterized by the division of labor has a function of clarifying the norms. In this respect, crime should not initially be understood as a social pathology – in the sense of a fundamental disturbance of the social. there was and is no society in which there were no deviations from the norm. A state of anomie (irregularity) is threatening.ĭurkheim notes that crime has an ubiquitous character, i.e. Crises in general, suicides or even crimes are signs of social pathological conditions that endanger the new structural principle of the division of labour. Here the division of labour is more than an economic principle, but represents the central social value base and enables solidarity among the members of society. Old social structural principles, based on the uniformity of the members of society and their lifestyles, are disappearing and are increasingly being replaced by the principle of the division of labour. Accordingly, in times of social upheaval, “collective consciousness” is weakened and previous norms, moral convictions and controls dwindle. Durkheim’s anomie theory describes the effects of the social division of labor developing in early industrialism and the rising suicide rate.