Emile Durkheim and Talcott Parsons

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anthropology. In the book Talcott Parsons Today by Javier Treviño he said, “ Malinowski’s functional view of cultures as systems of interdependent parts and his emphasis on the universal biological and social needs underlying cultural differences made a lasting impression on Parsons” (Treviño, pg.xx). From this you can see that Malinowski was a major influence on the making of Parsons own theory on structural functionalism. Another early influence in Parsons life was Émile Durkheim. You can read about Durkheim’s influence on Talcott in the book Talcott Parsons Today by Javier Treviño when he stated, “Parsons engagement with Durkheim’s work provided the springboard for his decisive move in the profession of sociology. It was Durkheim’s concern for the cultural and symbolic process that make up the social context, and his subsequent focus on values, symbols, and ideas that became the central theme of Parsons work” (Javier Treviño, pg.xxi) Treviño is explaining here that Durkheim’s work heavily influenced what Parson analyzed and worked on in his papers. There were a few other people that influence Parson, but the few I mentioned are the some of the most important ones that heavily influenced Parson and his thinking. Throughout his career, Parsons discussed topics such as social systems, social action, structural functionalism, religion in his work. Through Parsons past experiences, early influences, and his own work that helped make him have a theory with dealing on what he believes the relationship between religion and criminal or deviant behavior is.

In Durkheim’s research he derived his work from inductive reasoning I believe because inductive reasoning is when the claim is believe to be true most of the time and then evidence is collected to reach that specific conclusion. This can been seen in Durkheim’s work when he is working on social factor and especially seen in his work on suicide. To continued on this topic, the agent behind Parsons’ research came from natural and social science disciplines. To have his theories Parsons’ conducted secondary research analyzing data from other researchers, like Marx and Weber, and from governing sources. In his research Parson focused on structural functionalism and again drawing that information from theorist like Durkheim. Parsons work had little empirical content and was primary theoretical.

In my research on how Durkheim would personally approach the problem of the relationship between religion and criminal or deviant behaviors I found what he would think. So, first and foremost in my research I found that Émile Durkheim was a functionalist, so if something exists in society it must have a purpose for existing because it must serve a function. So, crime exists and it has functions which is a form of deviance and is normal in everyday societies. Going more into depth with this, in Durkheim’s work on The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) Excerpt from Robert Alun Jones he states, “ Durkheim said a social fact is a category of facts which present very special characteristics: they consist of manners of acting, thinking, and feeling external to the individual, which are invested with a coercive power by virtue of which they exercise control over him” (Jones, pg.1) Basically, he is saying that social facts is something that affects the behaviour of a person in society. When Durkheim is discussing this in The Rules of Sociological Method (1895) crime as an example. So, since deviant acts help form the collective consciousness which is a set of shared beliefs, ideas and moral attitudes of what is wrong and right in a society, the typical response in a society to these criminal or deviant behaviors is punishment. In the book The Division of Labor in Society by Émile Durkheim you can read, “ a crime offences sentiments which are found among all normal indices of any given society. Crime is then an act which offends strong and defined state collective consciences” (Durkheim, pg.xiv). From this, Durkheim is basically saying crimes are things done that are not accepted in society, but again it can help define collective consciousness. What I am trying to get to is that even though crime is not favored in societies he explains how crime is societal necessary for every society because through punishing the who do wrong it reaffirms their social values, and strengthens the collective conscience. From saying all of this, in my research I found that Durkheim believed that religion is one of the main forces that make up a collective conscience as well. To go more into depth on this in the article Émile Durkheim’s sociology by Frank W. Elwell he states, “according to Durkheim, religion is one of the main forces that make up the collective conscience, religions which allows the individual to transcend self and act for the social good” (Elwell, pg.2) The main point he is trying to get across here is that Durkheim believed that religion plays an important factor in how our society acts and usually it helps us act for the good of society. In addition in the article Religion and Crime by Criminal Justice they stated, “Durkheim believed that religion operated as a social force such that greater levels of religious commitment should lead to reduced negative behaviors” (Criminal Justice, pg.1) This again is to emphasize that Durkheim believe through his research that religion can act as a social force to reduce negative behaviors of deviance and crime. While Durkheim emphasized that the relationship between religion and crime and deviant behaviors is that religion can act essentially reduce those behaviors, it is also good to remember that Durkheim stresses that we need crime in our society. Émile Durkheim emphasizes this by explaining that society relies on crime, as long as the crime rates are not too low or high because crime again reaffirms social norms and values and every society needs this.

Therefore, my next research is on how Parson would take on the problem of the relationship between religion and crime or deviant behaviors. To start off, some of what Talcott Parson was focused on the problem of order in society. To go more in depth with this, in the bibliography Parsons, Talcott 1902-1979 by International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences they said, Parsons was concerned with the integration of structure and process, within a situation, where the system itself include understood norms. Additionally, social structures have social functions, which are the consequences of any social pattern for the operation of society as a whole. For Parsons, society is a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability” (International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, pg.1). From this reading, it emphasized that Parson thought every social structure has certain structures, and society is a system that works together