To the name of André Davidovitch one can associate the renewal of sociological research on criminality after the Second World War, in a field generally occupied by jurists. As a student of Henri Lévy-Bruhl, he perpetuated, after the latter passed away, a research tradition inspired by Durkheimian sociology. Davidovitch's activity took place mainly at the Centre d'études sociologiques and in L'Année sociologique. Studying this double social phenomenon constituted by crime on the one hand, and punishment on the other, Davidovitch, amongst other prominent works, offers a reflection on the functioning of the “judicial machine”, seeks to determine the causes of a new, so-called “artful” ( “white collar” ), criminality, studies road delinquency and deviance in urban setting - a traditional field in which he innovates by reflecting on the use of local police data considered as indicators of behaviour. Thus performing the triple role of institutional and intellectual frontier runner, as well as that of innovator, he occupies a key position in the history of the sociology of crime in France.