Durkheim, Violence and Society

Durkheimian concepts of anomie, normlessness, and social control and solidarity have continued relevance for sociological explanations of violence. However, contemporary scholarship on violence against minoritized communities, violence against women, and Southern theory present vital challenges and bring intersections between gender, class, race and ethnicity into this theory, thereby historicizing and rethinking core concepts (Connell; Carrington, Hogg and Sozzo). This panel asks: how does this scholarship change Durkheimian canon? Is violence a social fact that is performed ‘from below’ or imposed top-down? Is violence primarily perpetrated by the disadvantaged or the powerful? Is suicide violence? Violence against the self and violence against others have often been studied in separate disciplines. The former, suicide, has received much attention in public health, epidemiology, and the psy-disciplines while the latter, homicide, has primarily been the remit of criminology. Should violence against the self be conceptualised alongside violence against others? If domestic violence and abuse leads to suicide, should perpetrators be morally and/or criminally responsible and should it be considered homicide?