Part I: The "Normality of deviance"

• All societies have some level of crime and deviance.

  • 100% socialization is impossible

• Durkheim noted there could be no “society of saints.”.

  • “uniformity is impossible to achieve”

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People are socialized into an understanding and internalization of their society’s norms and values. However, are they completely 100% socialized? If so, they would not even be able to think a deviant thought. The ideal and real would be identical and this is not possible. Even the most moralistic well-behaved and intentioned citizen occasionally thinks about a violation.

Utopia is impossible. The uniformity necessary to achieve utopia-perfection- in human society is impossible. People are simply too variable in their socialization experiences, in their beliefs, in their values and norms.

In his essay "The Normal and the Pathological" to illustrate the impossibility of a perfect society, Durkheim used the example of a monastery. While it appears from the outside that the monks are perfect and never deviate, in reality from inside, from the perspective of their norms, a violation which would seem inconsequential to us, to forget one’s morning prayers, becomes serious to them. Durkhem considered punishment to be the reaction, in a manner of speaking, of society to the rupture of its moral social order. The greater the percieved threat, the harsher becomes the punishment. In this sense, punishment does not deter, but rather serves as retirbution. (See the discussions of punishment in the text.)