Concept Of Anomie Research Articles

Want Amid Plenty: Developing and Testing a Cross-National Measure of Anomie

One of the biggest challenges facing researchers trying to empirically test structural or institutional anomie theories is the operationalization of the key concept of anomie. This challenge is heightened by the data constraints involved in cross-national research. As a result, researchers have been forced to rely on surrogate or proxy measures of anomie and indirect tests of the theories. The purpose of this study is to examine an innovative and more theoretically sound measure of anomie and to test its ability to make cross-national predictions of serious crime. Our results are supportive of the efficacy of this construct to explain cross-national variations in crime rates. Nations with the highest rates of structural anomie also have the highest predicted rates of homicide.

The Experience of Lawlessness

The concept of anomie, as originally developed by Emile Durkheim more than one hundred years ago, connotes a state of lawlessness. What happens in this state is of continued and increased concern, for example, if a government collapses, as in the case of Nazi Germany, or as a consequence of natural disasters, such as hurricane Katrina. Detached evaluation of recent events is impaired because it requires some lapse of time. The essence of lawlessness also prevents resort to traditional legal sources. Thus one is confined to empirical evidence and whatever norms can be derived from them. Essentially, unwritten law emerges in groups of people and in neighborhoods under circumstances of extreme emergencies and in the absence of any organized communal or state power. The evidence from the collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945 and taken from the cities of Frankfurt and Berlin indicates a spirit of excitement and raw energy, in other words, an upsurge of vitality that facilitates improvisation under conditions of severe threat to survival. Standards of morality and legal behavior are temporarily suspended in the interest of coping with immediate emergencies. Yet the more serious the state of anomie, the more reactive forces come into play that ultimately gravitate toward reestablishing traditional legal controls. The evaluation is rendered difficult because standards of analysis shift. What seemed to be plausible under circumstances of threat to life and health may appear at a later time to be questionable if not offensive. Throughout these processes traditional criminal law leads a shadowy existence in the minds of people who continue to adhere to core values regardless of the fate of government.

Durkheim's concept of dérèglement retranslated, Parsons's reading of Durkheim re‐parsed: an examination of post‐emotional displacement, scapegoating and responsibility at Abu Ghraib

In a continued attempt to comprehend Durkheim's original understanding of anomie as a form of dérèglement or derangement, we begin with a discussion of how the experiences of abuse at Abu Ghraib fit his model of a deranged, anomic social system. To bolster our interpretation we show how this, more accurate, understanding of anomie as derangement is useful for understanding war crimes in general, an area where Durkheim's concept of anomie has been infrequently applied as a descriptor for research and analysis. Additionally, the concept of post‐emotionalism is used to capture a number of related themes in this discussion pertaining to the sociology of knowledge: how and why original meanings of both the abuse at Abu Ghraib and Durkheim's concept of derangement have been taken out of context and result in displaced emotions, scapegoating and misplaced responsibility in intellectual discourse as well as the military justice system.

Making Sociology Relevant: The Assignment and Application of Breaching Experiments

This essay adds to the discussion of the assignment of breaching experiment in two ways. First, it outlines specific instructions (for teacher and students) that are absent or not explained thoroughly in the literature. Described in more detail below are some assignment guidelines I have found valuable for effective social breaching. Second, this paper offers an example of how a breaching assignment brings abstract sociological concept down-to-Earth for students. I provide a description of a highly effective breach I call waiting-in-line that I incorporate into a classroom discussion of Robert K. Merton's concept of anomie.

Social Anomie and Racial Segregation in South Africa

The concept of anomie is one of the classics of sociological theory. Developed by scholars such as Emile Durkheim and Robert K. Merton, the concept refers to the absence of clear social norms and values and to a lack of sense of social regulation. However, whereas Merton focused on features of relative deprivation that cause anomie, Durkheim was primarily interested in the link between rapid social change and social anomie. According to the latter, normative regulation is threatened with being undermined and people are likely to lack the social and psychological means for adjustment in times of rapid social change. Drawing on survey data from the South African General Household Survey polled in 2002, the article examines the ethnical differences in levels of social anomie in the South African society. In order to do so, we, first, place the South African levels of anomie into comparative context. In a second step, we look at the race specific levels of anomie. Third, we investigate whether the differences in anomie between the races are related to the still existing socio-economic inequalities or whether race can be regarded as an independent factor that impacts on anomie. Finally we scrutinize to what extent socio-economic factors account for different levels of anomie within the races.

Is American Society More Anomic? A Test of Merton's Theory with Cross‐National Data1

Despite the pivotal conceptual position of anomie in criminology and sociology, operation‐ alization of the concept remains problematic. This study offers a new operationalization of anomie based on an interpretation of Merton's theory. Furthermore, it provides a test of the anomie theory's premise that Americans are more anomic than peoples in other societies. The data indicates that the mean level of anomie in the United States is not particularly high in comparison with mean levels of anomie in many other societies. It is quite comparable with other English speaking societies, and lower than continental European countries and Latin American countries. The current research contributes to efforts in testing Mer‐ ton's theory with cross‐national data and helps calibrate the measuring instrument of Merton's concept of anomie.

Globalisation and psychiatry

Globalisation means crossing borders. It is a complex, large-scale social phenomenon that presents to mental health services both challenges and opportunities. These relate to the increased cultural diversity of service users and service providers; the effects of migration on mental health; and the implementation of international protocols in relation to training, policy and education. In the aftermath of 11 September 2001 in the USA, the relationship between large-scale social change and mental health has also focused attention on the concepts of anomie and social capital. An explicit return to the principles of biopsychosocial psychiatry and a positive engagement with globalisation will advance the development of effective, evidence-based models of care appropriate to the changing needs of patients.

Anxiety and Uncertainty in Modern Society

The intention of this paper is to relate the various standpoints regarding anxiety and uncertainty. Within the humanities and social sciences, research is pursued in many different disciplines without much interaction between them. Everyone's thinking is based on concepts which are domainspecific, and the distinctions, methods and arguments used are the ones that are generally accepted within the discipline. The divergent conclusions constitute pieces of a puzzle that are seldom if ever put together. There are even doubts about whether such a puzzle can be put together. It can hardly be denied, however, that inspiration is to be found in a consideration of the views and findings of colleagues from other disciplines who are working on the same problems. Now that we have as our guests two prominent academics, each with specific views about our subject, we should take this opportunity to discuss together some of the sociological, anthropological, economic, philosophical and theological approaches to anxiety and uncertainty. If a number of well-known authors are to be believed, lack of trust, uncertainty and insecurity affect the most affluent and modern societies. In French one speaks of precarite (Bourdieu, 1998), in German of Unsicherheit and Risikogesellschaft (Beck, 1986), and in English of “fear”, “risk” and “insecurity” (Douglas, 1992, Furedi, 1997; Bauman, 1992, 1997, 1999). All modern Western societies seem to be afflicted with the same dismal and frustrating human experience. Belgian society is no exception to this. In recent years we have regularly been subjected to the emotional reactions provoked by sensational events in the areas of politics (Agusta scandal), justice (the Dutroux affair) and public health (dioxin, BSE, foot and mouth). Less spectacular but no less real were the results of opinion polls which showed that confidence in public institutions in general, and politics in particular, is at an all-time low. In 1981, 54% of respondents said they had confidence in the justice system; in 1990 it was 44%; in 1999, 34%. Confidence in parliament declined by 8% in the past decade. Especially noteworthy is the declining confidence in the European institutions, from 65% in 1990 to 43% in 1999 (Dobbelaere et al., 2000). A study of the changes in confidence over the short term showed that confidence in public institutions increased in 1996. The Dutroux affair caused confidence to shrink, but from 1997 onwards it grew once more, and by 1999 had reached a level that was higher than in 1996. Although public confidence remains low, this study of shortterm trends demonstrates that it is wrong to see emotional reactions to troubling public fiascos as the primary cause of lack of public confidence (Elchardus & Smits, 2000). In other words, deeper, more fundamental and slowly evolving causes must be sought. Opinion polls have also been directed to other components of uncertainty and lack of confidence, components that sociologists, following Srole (1959), have referred to with the concept of anomie. Alongside the lack of confidence in social and political institutions, they also distinguish a lack of confidence in one's fellow citizens which is closely related to the idea that in society, it is `everyone for himself' (there is no solidarity; people only look after themselves; each individual exclusively seeks power and money; success is more important than concern for others; etc.). As far as this component is concerned, in Belgium there is much less confidence in one's fellow citizens than in neighbouring countries.

Parents, Religion and Perceived Social Coherence: A Durkheimian Framework of Adolescent Anomie

Different aspects of religiosity have been found to be positively related to physical, psychological and social well-being. Several scholars have suggested that religious beliefs, religious communities, and perceived divine support may provide individuals with a sense of coherence, which in turn has positive effects on individual well-being. This coherence hypothesis is in fact the inverse of the Durkheimian concept of anomie. This paper specifies and tests a structural model of social control, social support, religious participation, religious orthodoxy, and perceived divine support, in relation to perceived exteriority and constraint among adolescents. The results indicate that parental support and religious participation increases the perceived exteriority and constraint of the social world, while parental rule setting, religious orthodoxy, and divine support do not have an independent effect.

FINANCIAL DEREGULATION AND ECONOMIC ANOMIE

This paper pursues the thesis which the author has previously developed under the title ‘The Legitimation of Deviance in the Financial Markets’. This thesis suggests alternative forms of analysing the rela‐tionship between government and capital markets with reference to deviant activity. It is suggested that the processes of political and economic deregulation have involved an enhancement in the complexity in the structure of power relations and in a moral and ethical indetermination in the propagation and promulgation of norms and behaviour. This paper develops the original thesis regarding the appropriateness of the application of the sociological concept of anomie in understanding the configuration between internal and external deviant motivation.

Durkheim's Concept of Anomie Considered as a 'Total' Social Fact

Durkheim's Concept of Anomie Considered as a 'Total' Social Fact

From consumer problems to consumer anomie

At the beginning of this century consumer problems in Europe were concentrated on the economic and functional aspects of consumption. These were concrete realities which were felt so strongly that efforts were made to solve them independently, e.g., by consumer co-operation. With steadfast extension of the market, consumer problems have become more diffuse. This is due to several circumstances: (a) the functional aspects of commodities have become more complex and their origin more difficult to identify; (b) the functional and symbolic aspects have become more entangled; (c) the traditional cultural distinction between good and bad in consumption has collapsed at the same time as new, branded products have made it more difficult to build up a new cultural code. As a result there is a problem of how to combine — in consumer choice — the symbolic and the functional dimensions of a commodity. One may say that it is typical for modern consumption that there are no rigid choice criteria and that uncertainty is inherent in consumer choice. If this holds true one can use the Durkheimian concept of anomie in describing the main problem in modern European consumption.

Durkheim's Concept of Anomie as Dereglement

Durkheim's Concept of Anomie as Dereglement

Sexual Anomie, Social Structure, Societal Change

Although relegated to a minor place in his writings, Durkheim did consider aspects of sexuality and sexual regulations as basic features of social organization. This paper begins with an examination of sexual in Suicide. Durkheim uncovered some unexpected data as to which sex really benefits from the institution of marriage but did not draw out the implications of his findings because, we suggest, the findings were too anomalous in terms of the bourgeois worldview of his period. Yet the notion of sexual is heuristic in approaching features of contemporary society that involve transformations in sexual relations and sexual identity. In addition to structural changes and deregulations in sexual relations, attention is also given to ideological ones, such as expressions of an ideology of androgyny. We conclude that the question and meaning of sexual relations will become a central concern for the social order of advanced modernity, and therefore should be reconsidered as a major variable in societal change. The concept of anomie, re-introduced into sociological parlance by Durkheim (a) in pretty much the same sense as it was used in the late sixteenth century (Merton), has proven itself extremely heuristic for modem sociological analysis, from Merton's own seminal essay on non-conformity, to Duvignaud's theory of and mutation. Indicative that new wine may continue to pour out of the venerable Bordeaux cask from which Durkheim first drew his conceptualization is the perspective recently provided by Simon and Gagnon. They argue that the Mertonian approach, formulated first in the 1930s, was imprinted by a period of general scarcity; consequently this has to be complemented by an anomie of which would recognize the capacity of advanced industrial societies to sustain long periods of affluence and technological growth. Their provocative analysis has been most recently extended by Abrahamson whose study of sudden wealth found an inverse relationship between and acceptance of gratification; that is, unlike what Durkheim had posited, larger amounts of sudden wealth lead to lower anomia (56).

III. The Concept of Anomie and Historical Materialism

III. The Concept of Anomie and Historical Materialism

Differential Anomic Responses in a Religious Community

A religious community of nuns, in which institutional change has resulted in a situation of structural anomie, is examined with a view to discovering what types of persons in the community experience individual feelings of anomie. The data point to the conclusion that three variables are operating to determine individual anomie: authoritarianism, traditionalism, and a non-rational orientation. The concept of anomie has had a long and well-developed history in sociological thought. A number of questions about it are still unanswered, notably the question of whether the concept most usefully refers to a characteristic of the social structure or to a characteristic of individual personalities. Most of the studies taking a social-structural approach to anomie see it as a pathological state of society and culture resulting from large-scale societal and cultural changes (such as industrialization). The studies taking an individual approach to anomie see it as a psychological pathology produced in certain individuals by such variables as faulty socialization, an inability to deal successfully with the dislocations of a rapidly changing society and culture, and others. This paper attempts to combine the sociological and the psychological approaches to anomie. Individual anomie, a psychological state, will be related to structural anomie within a social sub-system: a religious community. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that individual anomie is neither a uniform nor a random response to anomic, dislocating conditions in the society, but rather that it is a response within a specific community of those individuals whose characteristics lead them to respond differentially to anomic conditions in that community. The paper is predicated on three assumptions, each of which is stated and discussed below. 1. Individual anomie is assumed to be a psychological state that is a reaction to conditions of rapid socio-cultural change and to the consequence of such change, structural anomie. Emile Durkheim pointed out the connection between anomie and socio-cultural change. In The Division of Labor in Society, he describes anomie as an absence of rules governing the interaction among society's various functions. Rules ordinarily develop as a result of frequent and close interaction, and it is the absence of such frequent and close interaction, he claims, that produces anomie in societies characterized by the division of labor (1964:353-73). In Suicide, Durkheim says that society is a power controlling individuals, and that in periods of crisis or abrupt transition society temporarily loses its ability to exercise social

In Defense of "Normal Science" Confessions of a Sociological Methodologist

D avid McCloskey's comment in the December 1974 issue of this journal on the earlier article by Professor Clyde and myself (Lee and Clyde, 1974) raises an interesting, theoretical point. McCloskey is concerned with our derivation and delineation of the concept of normlessness (our dependent variable), particularly with regard to its relationship to Durkheim's concept of anomie. Specifically, he asks us if we can . .. effectively demonstrate-in terms of a systematic, and historically informed exegesis of Durkheim's Suicide and his other related works-that (our) conceptualization and testing of this founding father's paradigm is legitimate? (McClosky, 1974: 502). I have given this matter considerable thought; coming finally to the conclusion that, with reference to our concept of normlessness, I must concede the better part of the debate to Mr. McCloskey. Our concept is indeed a bastard.' But this is not the interesting theoretical point to which I referred above. The important question before us, I believe, is the nature of the criteria by which we judge the usefulness of our concepts. To the charges that our conception of normlessness does not fully represent the scope and depth of Durkheim's anomie, I plead guilty. (Professors Dean, Merton, Parsons, and Clyde may or may not consent to this admission, but they should be permitted to reply on their own.) However, ourfailure to achieve this objective is attributable entirely to the fact that it was not our objective. The study was designed to test certain hypotheses regarding correlates of personal anomie or normlessness. In the construction of testable hypotheses, Durkheim's (1951) work on suicide provided considerable inspiration and food for thought, together with subsequent interpretations of his work as found in DeGrazia (1948),

Religion, Socioeconomic Status, and Anomie

1he concept of anomie, or normlessness, has been of major importance in sociological research and theory since Durkheim's classic treatise on Suicide (1951). Reconsidered by Robert Merton (1938, 1968) in conjunction with the anomie theory of deviant behavior, and translated into an attitudinal variable by Leo Srole (1956) and others, it has been the subject of considerable research, in terms of both causes and consequences, over the past two decades. The purpose of this paper is to inquire into the role that certain religion variables may play in producing or forestalling personal, or attitudinal, anomie.

Durkheim and Contemporary Social Pathology

The relation between Durkheim's (I951) concepts of anomie and egoism has been virtually unexplored in the substantial body of literature on social pathology. While the obscurity of Durkheim's distinction has frequently been commented upon, it is implicitly assumed to be irrelevant for contemporary theorization in social pathology. Against this view, two theses will be advanced: first, had Durkheim pursued and attempted to clarify his distinction between the two concepts, he would have been forced to re-examine the presuppositions upon which his sociology had been based. Secondly, despite the difficulties in Durkheim's theory in which the concepts of anomie and egoism play a crucial part, a distinction between them still has to be drawn which in fact retains some elements of their original meaning. All contemporary studies of anomie have neglected the distinction between anomie and egoism with the result that social conditions, psychological states, and processes which are entirely different from one another have been assimilated.

Suicide Attempts of Japanese Youth and Durkheim’s Concept of Anomie: An Interpretation

The rapid increase in Japan suicide rates after World War II - from less than 20 per 100,000 population before, and less than 15 during the war, to 25.3 in 1955 - suggests that the high suicide rates in 1955 may be attributed, at least partly, to anomie after the war. The effect of anomie seems to have been especially great on Japanese youth, whose suicide rates nearly doubled from those of pre-war periods for both sexes (Table 1). The purpose of this paper is (1) to ascertain the essential components of Durkheim's concept of anomie; (2) to apply them to the explanation of high suicide rates of Japanese youth; and (3) to apply them to suicide attempts by Japanese youth. Although Powell and Gibbs and Martin maintain that Durkheim's concepts are inapplicable to individual cases, we try to find components of the concepts, which may be applicable to individual cases. After all, as Durkheim recognized by referring to the suicidal individual's psychological conditions, the components of the "suicidal current" must converge upon suicidal individuals if they are to contribute to suicide rates. The difference between suicidal and non-suicidal individuals who are exposed to the same "suicidal current" will be due to the variation in the amount and intensity of each one of the components, and the interrelationship among them, within the individual. The amount, intensity, and interrelationship will be largely determined by social conditions and their effects upon particular individuals. It is the usually accepted contention that anomie as a social condition must be distinguished from anomie as a psychological condition. We maintain, however that the two are expressions of the same force - anomie - in the different contexts of social structure and individual psychology. We follow Leslie White in his handling of the dichotomy of culture and behavior.