In books like Moral Education and Professional Ethics, based on Durkheim's lecture notes and published after his death, the reader should be aware that Durkheim usually begins a series of lectures by outlining a view that is not his own, and then goes on to criticize this as the lecture series proceeds. A view stated confidently at the beginning of a series of lectures cannot always, or even usually, be taken to be Durkheim's actual view on a particular question by the end of the series. Since The Division of Labour is not based on a series of lectures, but was a finished work – the first book he published and in fact the first half of his doctoral dissertation – this is not a problem for us here. However, what Durkheim has to say on the subject of crime and punishment at the beginning of chapter 2 of The Division of Labour – and it is an interesting point to note that nearly all of his discussion of this subject in The Division of Labour occurs in this one chapter – cannot unproblematically be taken as his final view on this subject, so often does Durkheim appear to change his mind on this question here.