What is Criminology’ discussed the key issues and common debates in criminology to date. According to that debate, “scholars would prefer to view criminology as no more than a subject of interest to sociologists, lawyers, historians, psychologists etc. For such people, criminology is no more than a ‘rendezvous subject’ that pilfers knowledge and methodologies from the key disciplines that traditionally produced criminologists; namely sociology, psychology, and law.” (Bosworth, 2011) It is evident that it is an ongoing debate whether criminology is a subset of other fields and they also discussed the form of engagement criminology takes; “As a discipline concerned with issues of crime, justice and punishment, criminology by nature would seem to be related to criminal justice policies and state institutions. However, criminologists are by no means agreed on the appropriate form that any engagement with such issues should take.” (Bosworth, 2011)
Similarly, in relation to Durkheim’s approach to anti-social behaviour, there has been many criminologists and sociologists before and after him that have tried to find the cause of crime. Durkheim believed that a certain level of crime in society is necessary since without the presence of crime, laws would not evolve. “His crime, namely, the independence of his thought, rendered a service not only to humanity but to his country. Crime, therefore, must no longer be conceived as an evil that cannot be too much repressed. This however, does not lead Durkheim to condone crime or to present an apology for crime. When he stated that crime merely a normal element he viewed the whole of society as reality.” (Lunden, 1958) Durkheim’s contribution to criminology, including the social structure theories and functionalism have evolved our understanding which I will discuss further. “Criminology as a discipline has been described as a rather tenuous area of study. In other words, it is an area of study not defined by a particular unit of social reality, it is defined by its substantive concern: crime.” (Walklate, 1998) That is to say that through the work of Durkheim, it has allowed people