One aspect of Durkheim's work which

One aspect of Durkheim's work which Spitzer does endorse, and which has not been substantially refuted, is the connection he makes between the severity of punishment and the symbolic representation of victims. The quality of sacredness of the victim, the anti-religious quality of crime Durkheim attributes to traditional societies, is indeed, allows Spitzer, a correlate of severe punishment. However, rather than, as Durkheim sees it, crimes in advanced societies being against individuals, as political power becomes centralized in the modern state, the state itself becomes the victim, and so crime retains the aspect of being against the whole society. This is made obvious by the convention of law which describes the parties in criminal cases in England and Wales as Regina versus the defendant, and in the USA as 'the people' versus the defendant. The 'sacrilegiousness’ of crime, therefore, persists.