“Imagine a society of saints, a perfect cloister of exemplary individuals. Crimes, properly so called, will there be unknown; but faults which appear venial to the layman will create there the same scandal that the ordinary offense does in ordinary consciousnesses. If, then, this society has the power to judge and punish, it will define these acts as criminal and will treat them as such.”

Source: Rules of Sociological Method, 1895, p. 68-69

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Émile Durkheim43

French sociologist (1858-1917) 1858–1917

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Émile Durkheim43

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