A Methodological Approach to the Nature of Crime from Durkheim's Point of View

Using a methodological approach, the present paper has studied the nature of crime from Durkheim's point of view, his methodical principles and their impact on the definition of crime. From Durkheim's point of view, crime is an action that hurts society’s collective feelings and for which the legislator imposes punishment. The principles of Durkheim’s positivistic method include separation from metaphysics, separation from sacred intellect, naturalism and separation of science from value. These principles have influenced his definition of crime, caused a lack of practical intellect and led to impossibility of judging the value of positive science in Durkheim’s thoughts. Accordingly, he is unable to develop an essential criterion for criminalization of actions, and has to fulfill the above-mentioned formal criteria in his definition. In practice, however, in identifying "immoral act", that is the foundation of the knowledge of "essential criterion for crime", he relies on the criterion of "benefit" which highlights a significant gap between his theory and practice.