Durkheim’s theory of anomie and crime: A clarification and elaboration

Abstract

In contemporary criminology, the proposal of a relationship between anomie and crime typically is traced to the work of Émile Durkheim. Yet, despite the prominence of anomie theory in this field, Durkheim’s theory of anomie and crime has not been carefully explicated and elaborated. Durkheim did not provide an extensive discussion of how anomie affects crime rates, and he certainly did not present anomie as the only cause of crime. Nonetheless, a careful examination of his rather elusive concept of anomie, together with a few small inferences, yields a relatively coherent theory of crime that differs from the popular interpretations of his work. The analysis begins with an inquiry into five different conceptions of anomie that can be abstracted from Durkheim’s writings. This is followed by an examination of what he implied regarding anomie as a cause of property crime, violent crime, and “juvenile crime.” The final section explores the effects of anomie on criminal law—that is, on decisions to define and treat various actions as criminal. Unlike most contemporary anomie theories, Durkheim’s theory, as elaborated in this article, integrates a theory of crime causation with an account of criminal law.