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16 Unity SUNDAY 13 MARCH 2022 Dr Albert Bell Youth and Community Studies DESPITE being penned more than a century ago, Emile Dur- kheim's ideas on crime and de- viance still hold relevance today. For this eminent French so- ciologist, deviance and crime – the latter existing at the extreme end of the deviancy continuum – are universal: they exist in all societies, irrespective of their size and form. Deviance and crime are also relative to, and contingent upon social and historical context. So what is considered as deviant or criminal varies across societies and time, even within the same society. Moreover, Durkheim also as- serts that crime and deviant behaviour can somehow prove functional to society – for exam- ple, they help re-evaluate, clari- fy, and re-affirm moral bounda- ries. However, when a society's institutional and regulatory framework fails to provide and maintain the requisite moral compass to keep its members in check, crime and deviance can escalate beyond control and may contribute to social col- lapse. In other words, in such circumstances, societies fall prey to normlessness, or what Durkheim terms Anomie. Here, crime and deviance become dysfunctional in nature. Anomie, for Durkheim, is more common in industrial- ised, complex modern societies as due to their fragmented and segmented nature, heterogene- ous social structures find the task of keeping a watertight col- lective conscience increasingly challenging. Perhaps, more controversial- ly, for Durkheim, crime and deviance are normal and are to be expected wherever human beings conglomerate. This is because humankind's nature is governed by what h e terms the homo du- plex, where the im- pulse to deviate is central. It is the person's social be- ing – built through interac- tion with significant others and where ideas on normative and non-normative behaviour are internalised – that controls the primal impulse to deviate. So for many Durkheimian criminologists, the fundamental question to be asked is not why individuals deviate and commit criminal acts. The key issue to address is what helps keep us in line and functioning along this normative framework. Apart from the importance of effective socialisation and moral development, various sociolo- gists lay emphasis on the impor- tance of strong communities for crime prevention. For example, the seminal post-war American sociologist Travis Hirschi focus- es on the centrality of effective social bonds to combat the rise of anonymous communities. These act as fertile ground for societal de-regulation and the unshackling of the deviant impulse. Without the requi- site community identity, at- tachment, participation and involvement, communities risk atomisation and the erosion of the informal social sanction- ing power that more cemented communities possess. The ramifications for under- standing why crime tends to proliferate among weakened communities and neighbour- hoods are enormous. Moreover, social control theory provides a strong case for the communi- ty-oriented scaffolding that na- tional crime prevention strate- gies should ensure. What are we doing, as a nation, to ensure that our communities do not spi- ral into a fragmented aggregate of people, versus spaces where there is meaningful interaction that cultivates a sense of belong- ing and fulfilment, and thus act as strong buffers against the de- viant or criminal impulse? Quite often, this important de- bate is lost amidst the cacopho- ny – often short-lived – follow- ing the perpetration of serious criminal offences. Safer and stronger communi- ties will not rid and eradicate crime. But they will go a long way to ensure community and societal integration. And the latter, along with ef- fective rule of law, community policing, a strong safety net that identifies those most at risk of criminal careers and victimisa- tion, are tantamount to a holis- tic and effective national crime prevention strategy. Over a century later, Emile Durkheim's ideas on crime and deviance still hold true: where institutions fail, crime escalates beyond control CRIME thrives where community identity is weak Effective rule of law, community policing, a strong safety net that identifies those most at risk of criminal careers and victimisation, are tantamount to a holistic and effective national crime prevention strategy. Crime and punishment