In On the Normality of Crime, Emile Durkheim states that “crime is necessary. It is linked to the fundamental conditions of social life, but precisely for this reason it is useful, since the conditions to which it is linked are themselves indispensable to the normal evolution of morality and law" (Durkheim, 1893). Since crime is not an abnormal or pathological condition, it is not a disease that can be “cured” through the application of punishment (Durkheim, 1893). From Durkheim's perspective, the criminal is as indispensable to a properly functioning society as the law-abiding citizen; Criminal acts help to delimit and enforce the boundaries of acceptable behavior: these boundaries could not be known if they were never touched or violated. Crime also serves a number of other functions within society that make its total elimination not only impossible, but undesirable (at least to some). If we are to assume that a certain level of crime is healthy for society and that eliminating all crime would be harmful, we cannot therefore assume that the purpose of the U.S. prison system is to eliminate crime entirely. But does the US prison system affect crime rates? There is no doubt that this is the case, but it is arguable that whatever effect it has is secondary to its various other purposes. Theorists have proposed a number of frameworks through which these goals can be better understood: that the prison system is a self-perpetuating bureaucracy that is part of a larger “corrective-commercial” complex (Lilly & Knepper, 1993); that it is a means of strengthening and consolidating class and power relations (Wacquant, 2000; Parenti, 2001; Garland, 2002); that prisons are criminogenic institutions responsible for cre...... middle of paper ...... Journal of Law and Criminology. 98(2), pp. 547-619. Retrieved from: http://vlib.excelsior.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.vlib.excelsior.edu/docview/218436826?accountid=134966Pollock, J. M. (2005). The reasons for the imprisonment. In Pollock, J.M. (Ed.), Prisons: Today and Tomorrow (Aspen Publishers, Inc) (2nd ed) (pp. 3-21). Aspen Publishers, Inc. Shelden, R. G., & Brown, W. B. (2000). The crime control industry and surplus population management. In Kraska, P. and Brent, J. (eds.) (2011). Theorizing criminal justice: Eight essential orientations (2nd edition). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. pp 217-232. Wacquant, L. (2000) The new 'peculiar institution': on prison as a surrogate ghetto. In Kraska, P. and Brent, J. (eds.) (2011). Theorizing criminal justice: Eight essential orientations (2nd edition). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. page 270-280.