Institutional Anomie Research Articles

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF CYBERCRIME IN THE CONTEMPORARY NIGERIA VALUE SYSTEM

This paper examines cybercrime in the contemporary Nigerian value system. The paper finds that the uptick of cybercrime in Nigeria is inextricably linked with contemporary Nigeria value system. Indeed, the understanding of this linkage is important to carry out a truly scientific approach to the study of cybercrime and correct some policy misconceptions. The study was anchored on institutional anomie theory (IAT) and data were secondarily sourced through newspaper publications, journal articles, textbooks, magazines and publications. The paper recommends the urgent need for a value re-orientation, a re-engendering and a re-focusing on our value system with the view to actualizing our potentials and harnessing our resources both human and materials, for a greater, purposeful and vibrant Nigeria. Also, fighting corruption and enthroning transparency through the strengthening of institutions, and increased citizen participation in the governance process is urgently needed. Article visualizations:

Pathways to delinquency for street children in China: Institutional anomie, resilience and crime

Delinquency of street children in China is prevalent, but the etiology of pathways into delinquency among street children in China has yet to be explored. By drawing on in-depth interviews with 40 street children in Kunming, China, this paper investigates the processes that lead street children to become involved in crime. The research finds that street children's pathways to delinquency occurs via three stages: (1) initial attempts to make a living through conventional activities; (2) involvement in the informal economic activity as a middle solution; and (3) engaging in instrumental crime as a last resort. Delinquent behavior is thus street children's natural adaptation when access to legitimate survival opportunities are eliminated by institutional exclusion to the formal labor market and because of the government's efforts to tackle child homelessness which often have negative consequences for children living on the streets. This reflects both anomie/strain theory and resilient perspectives, and this research constructs a model of anomie, resilience and crime. The article concludes by arguing that policy and practical implications for reducing street children crime in China should focus on providing life and work opportunities and help to raise awareness of street children in China and the mechanisms they use to assist their survival on the streets.

Institutional Imbalance, Marketized Mentality, and the Justification of Instrumental Offenses: A Cross-National Application of Institutional Anomie Theory

The present study builds upon prior research that has suggested that the social psychological concept of “marketized mentality” (MM) can serve as a conceptual lynchpin to facilitate multilevel analyses informed by Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT), a macro-sociological theory of crime. We examine the connection between a societal indicator of institutional imbalance – a key IAT concept – and a measure of the prevalence of MM with a much larger sample of nations than analyzed previously (58 countries). In addition, we broaden the domain of “outcomes” related to MM to include an attitudinal variable relevant to crime – the willingness to justify instrumental offenses. Consistent with theoretical expectations, the results reveal significant relations between MM, the degree of institutional imbalance, and the willingness to justify instrumental offenses. These findings indicate the potential promise of developing an integrated, micro-macro approach to understanding criminological phenomena by incorporating MM within the IAT-analytic framework.

Socio-Economic Determinants of Crime in Modern Russian Society

The authors research the criminal situation in the conditions of globalization, reproduction of social risks, crisis and dominance of economic processes over all spheres of social and private life. The goal of the paper is to evaluate the actual degree of criminogenity of most important social institutions in modern Russia from the standpoint of the anomie theory of E. Durkheim, its interpretation by R. Merton and of the institutional anomie theory of S. Messner and R. Rosenfeld. They highlight changes in traditional non-economic social institutions and the actualization of conditions causing social stratification according to the «inclusion/exclusion» criterion, which act as a basis for the development of systemic deviantization factors. At the same time, the authors stress that the research of objective social processes should go hand-in-hand with the research of the subjective component, namely, social attitudes aimed at the assessment and the degree of interiorization, declared and often imposed and viewed as meaningful incentives for reaching objectives. This research uses the method of analyzing the secondary data of public surveys, it analyzes statistical data, including various socio-economic, demographic and other indices as well as the questionnaire method. In order to predict the situation in the sphere of studying criminal behavior, the authors suggest paying attention to the processes of de-commoditization, which act as a basis for reducing the imbalance in how a person perceives his/her position in society; they also suggest taking into consideration the negative impact of economic aspects on the cultural and moral principles of the society.

Testing a Critical Mass of Females in Firm Ownership and Firm Bribery:Social Institutions Approach

We advance existing literature on corporate governance and firm bribery using institutional anomie theory by addressing critical limitations in its underdeveloped treatment of gender. Specifically,...

Institutional anomie and justification of morally dubious behavior and violence cross-nationally: A multilevel examination

This study draws on insights from institutional anomie theory to examine justification of morally dubious behavior and violence cross-nationally. Further, it builds on a burgeoning body of multilevel institutional anomie theory and research on crime-relevant attitudes by considering whether and how individual financial hardship intersects with anomic structural and cultural systems at the national level, acknowledging that individual responses to anomie may be contingent upon experiences with such hardships. Results from multilevel modeling using data from 74,930 World Values Survey respondents in 52 nations, the World Bank, and other organizations provide partial support for the hypotheses. Specifically, conditions of “want amid plenty,” (Bjerregaard & Cochran, 2008a, p. 183) weakened family and education institutions, and monetary fetishism predict justifications cross-nationally. Moreover, economic inequality and individualism moderate the effect of financial hardship on justifications of morally dubious actions and violence, consistent with expectations.

Corporate innovations as institutional anomie: Patent activities and financial performance of the international aerospace industry

We analyze the relationship between corporate innovation and corporate performance in the international aerospace industry via institutional anomie theory. Panel data analysis with mixed-effect models is applied using material from 2000 to 2016. Research and development and market value have significant influence on corporate innovation as positive institutional anomie for aircraft and missile sub-industries. However, operating performance exerts a significant negative influence on aerospace industry including emerging and developed countries. Market value has a significant negative influence on the patenting activities of emerging countries. Firm age has significant influence on corporate innovation by enhancing positive institutional anomie in patent activities.

MARKETIZED MENTALITY, COMPETITIVE/EGOISTIC SCHOOL CULTURE, AND DELINQUENT ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR: AN APPLICATION OF INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE THEORY*

AbstractWe analyze the individual‐level and school‐level determinants of delinquency through the lens of a macro‐sociological theory of crime—institutional anomie theory (IAT). The concept of a “marketized mentality” is introduced as a predictor of students’ delinquency, along with an egoistic/competitive school culture—a feature of the school community. Five hypotheses pertaining to the readiness to use violence and self‐reported delinquency were assessed using multilevel modeling with data from a survey in Germany for 4,150 students clustered in 69 schools. The results largely meet theoretical expectations. The measure of marketized mentality exhibits robust relationships with both forms of delinquency at the individual level, and an egoistic/competitive school culture helps explain variation in levels of these forms of delinquency across schools. Also consistent with expectations, the anti‐social effects of marketized mentality are accentuated for both the readiness to use violence and committing instrumentally motivated property offenses as a competitive/egoistic school climate increases. The results of our analyses reveal that bringing in concepts of IAT can appreciably enhance understanding of the characteristics of students and features of communal school organization that are conducive to youthful offending.

The Growth of Chinese Think Tanks and the Question of Crime

This paper reviews several of the key issues that underlie the development and expansion of think tanks in China from both a domestic and international perspective. Substantively, the review focuses on the need to develop criminological think tanks in China due to the well-documented relationship between rapid urbanization, social displacement, and crime. Though work on urbanization, social disorganization, and crime has existed for over half a decade in Western criminology, it suffers from a lack of research outside of the Western and usually more specifically American, cultural context. To advance this call for research, the paper identifies 14 generative research programs in the areas of the Routine Activities Theory, Social Bonds Theory, and Institutional Anomie Theory pursuable by Chinese criminological think tanks. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of some potential barriers to the successful production and dissemination of criminological research in China.

제도적 아노미 이론에 따른 자생테러 연구

제도적 아노미 이론에 따른 자생테러 연구

Soziale Werte in der soziologischen und kriminologischen Forschung: Überlegungen zum Begriff und Operationalisierung

Numerous theoretical approaches include social values as a social unit. In general, the social values are defined as guidelines; they are personal and internal; and they hold together the social groups. Overall, the social values are distinguished from value‑orientations, social norms, and attitudes. A reasonable-sized body of sociological and criminological studies has analysed the structure and significance of social values for human behaviour. The article explores this corpus, discussing numerous theoretical approaches and studies with reference to a key question: how can one fruitfully operationalise the social values? The theoretical analyses in the article apply institutional anomie theory, which is presented as an example of a criminological theory.

Murder in the shadows: evidence for an institutional legitimacy theory of crime

ABSTRACTThe focus on the institutional control of violent crime has increased over the past few decades, stimulated largely by Messner and Rosenfeld’s “institutional anomie theory.” A related theory, referred to as “institutional legitimacy theory” in this study, has received considerably less attention. This theory, originating in the social control theoretical tradition, is tested in an analysis of homicide rates (circa 2012) across 108 nations. Overall, institutional legitimacy theory receives support as economic, political, familial, and religious institutional legitimacy assist in reducing homicide rates across societies. Most notably, homicide is positively associated with the size of the shadow economy (the measure of waning economic institutional legitimacy), consistent with the hypothesis that parties lacking institutional redress are more likely to use unilateral violence to resolve grievances.

Democratic Dangers Beyond Borders

AbstractDemocratization can advance “beyond borders” as an international trend, but it can also falter and decay on as a transnational phenomenon. This article examines the forces that seem to be weakening democracy on a global level, including populism, the rise of authoritarian leadership, and growing xenophobia. It compares current discontents with the advent of dictatorships in the 1930s and focuses in particular on the growing inability of postwar political parties to provide coherent governance since the 1970s. Borrowing a suggestion from Albert Hirschman's Shifting Involvements, it tentatively suggests that following a long era of strenuous political engagement in the twentieth century, an institutional anomie has set in, such that political acitivity — not as confrontation, but as institutional commitment — has decisively eroded in Western societies.

A partial test of institutional anomie theory : Heinous, Violent and Property crime in South Korea

내 선행연구들은 개인을 분석단위로 한 미시적 연구가 주를 이루고 거시적 관점에서 한국의 범죄현상을 분석한 연구는 드물다. 우리사회에 범죄를 일으키는 거시적인 원인으로 사회전반에 걸쳐 퍼져있는 물질적 성공에 대한 지나친 강조와 비물질적 가치인 가족 또는 교육에 대한 경시를 들 수 있다. Messner and Rosenfeld(2007)는 미국사회의 거시적 범죄 원인으로 ‘아메리칸 드림’에 대한 지나친 강조를 제시하면서 제도적 아노미 이론을 바탕으로 범죄의 변화를 설명하였다. 본 연구는 제도적 아노미 이론을 우리사회에 적용하여 범죄현상을 설명하고자 한다. 이를 위해 2014년 기준 대검찰청의 범죄분석 자료와 통계청 등에서 수집한 119개의 기초자치단체에 대한 자료를 분석에 사용 하였다. 이를 이용해 한국의 범죄를 흉악범죄, 폭력범죄, 재산범죄로 나누어 OLS 회귀분석을 실시하였다. 연구결과 낮은 경제적 제도의 지배가 폭력범죄와 재산범죄에 부(-)적으로 유의미한 영향을 미쳤다. 또한 경제적 기회의 박탈과 정치제도의 상호작용항은 재산범죄에 유의미한 영향을 주었고, 경제기회의 박탈과 가족제도와의 상호작용항은 흉악범죄와 폭력범죄에 유의미한 영향을 미쳤다. 그리고 경제기회 박탈과 교육제도와의 상호작용항은 흉악범죄와 유의미한 관계가 있었다. 이러한 결과들은 제도적 아노미 이론의 가설을 부분적으로 지지하는 것으로 보인다. 끝으로 정책적 제언과 연구의 한계점에 대해 논의하였다.Previous studies on the crime phenomenon mainly concentrated on the microscopic factor such as persons who had committed crime as an unit of analysis. However, studies focusing on the macroscopic factors rare until now. As one of macroscopic crime contributing factors in Korean society, the excessive emphasis on material success and negligence on noneconomic values such as family and education can be considered. Messner and Rosenfeld(2007) suggested that the excessive emphasis on American Dream became a causal factor of increasing crime rates in American society. And they explained this phenomenon with the Institutional Anomie Theory. This study tries to explain the crime phenomenon of our society based on the Institutional Anomie Theory. This study used 2014 Crime Analysis Data from the Supreme Prosecutors Office as well as other data sets from the National Statistical Office regarding 119 local areas(si, gun, gu level). In the analysis, crime is divided into heinous crime, violent crime, and property crime and analyzed with OLS Regression. According to the analysis results, the control of low economic system showed significant negative effect on violent and property crime. Moreover, interactive term between the deprivation of economic opportunity and the political system showed significance with property crime. Interactive term between the deprivation of economic opportunity and the family system showed significance with heinous crime and violent crime. Interactive term between the deprivation of economic opportunity and the education system was significantly related with heinous crime. These results partially supported hypotheses of Institutional Anomie Theory. Policy suggestions and limitations of this study was discussed

Economy and Supervisors’ Ethical Values: Exploring the Mediating Role of Noneconomic Institutions in a Cross-National Test of Institutional Anomie Theory

This study examined the direct influence of national economic condition, as well as the indirect effects through the strength of noneconomic institutions on supervisors’ ethical reasoning using the institutional anomie theory developed by Messner and Rosenfeld (Soc Forces 75(4):1393–1416, 2001). Utilizing data of 20,025 supervisors across 52 countries, the analyses showed that high disparity in the economic distribution directly and indirectly leads to unethical values. High economic inequality in a country resulted in high tendency of supervisors to justify unethical acts. In addition, some of this influence went through the institutional strength of family, education, polity, and religion, thereby indicating partial mediation. As a result, the study presented the important roles of social institutions in explaining supervisors’ attitude and behavior. The findings of this research contribute to the institutional anomie theory by clarifying the multilevel path of the macrostructures’ conditions in explaining supervisors’ ethicality. Moreover, since some of the relationships between variables resulted in the direction opposite to the propositions of the theory, this study suggested other theoretical models that may be integrated with IAT. Along with these theoretical contributions, practical implications to businesses and society are discussed to strengthen supervisors’ ethics.

Are Competitive Materialism and Female Employment Related to International Homicide Rate?

The institutional anomie theory is a proposal that states competitive materialism, an intense cultural pressure for economic success at any costs, and increased female employment may be related to a high homicide rate. The current work tested this proposition by utilizing homicide data collected from 45 developed and developing countries. Regression results did not support the proposition. Competitive materialism and female employment were not significantly related to the cross-national variation of homicide rates.

Specifying the Effect of Social Welfare Expenditures on Homicide and Suicide: A Cross-National, Longitudinal Examination of the Stream Analogy of Lethal Violence

This study is an extension and cross-national test of the Stream Analogy of Lethal Violence (SALV). The SALV is an integrated theory of homicide and suicide that hypothesizes a relationship between “socially patterned” sources of frustration and lethal violence. By drawing on the insights of General Strain Theory and Institutional Anomie Theory, this study extends the SALV by assessing the impact of “decommodification” on the lethal violence rate. Partial support is found for this modified version of the SALV, as lagged measures of social expenditures are negatively associated with total lethal violence. The findings of this study suggest that social welfare expenditures in OECD nations protect citizens from lethal violence while austerity measures may contribute to greater rates of violent death.

Institutional imbalance, integration into Non-economic institutions, and a marketized mentality in Europe: A multilevel, partial elaboration of Institutional Anomie Theory

This research builds upon prior efforts to transport insights from a macro-sociological theory of crime – Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT) – to enhance understanding of an important individual-level phenomenon in advanced capitalist societies – a ‘marketized mentality’. Such a mentality entails a strong commitment to the utilitarian, instrumental values of the market at the expense of more altruistic, expressive values. Drawing upon IAT, we hypothesize that at the individual level, integration into selected non-economic institutions will tend to inhibit the adoption of a marketized mentality, but the strength of this inhibiting effect will vary depending on the degree to which economic institutions and non-economic institutions in society are ‘balanced’ or ‘unbalanced’. Our theoretical arguments imply that observed levels of acceptance of a marketized mentality will vary significantly across societies and that this variation will be related to the degree of imbalance in the institutional order: We expect to observe a cross-level interaction such that the inhibiting effect of integration into non-economic institutions is attenuated as institutional imbalance increases. These hypotheses are assessed in multilevel analyses with data from 25 European countries using the European Social Survey. The results are generally in accordance with theoretical expectations, revealing how an institutional imbalance helps shape people’s value orientations by promoting marketized mentalities and by weakening the socialization effects of non-economic institutions.

Television consumption and Institutional Anomie Theory

CONTACTMessner and Rosenfeld’s Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT) is based on the assumption that the “American Dream” produces a society that is dominated by the economy and obsessed with the pursuit of success. Thus, crime is prevalent in the United States because individuals are willing to cut corners in order to attain the “dream” for themselves. This article extends the work of Messner and Rosenfeld (1994), contending that the “American Dream” is transmitted directly to citizens through the consumption of television representations. Using over 6,000 cases from the public use portion of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (ADD Health), the author conducted regression analysis to assess the influence of television consumption on both the cultural and institutional dynamics of IAT. This research is also one of only a few to apply IAT at the individual level of analysis.

A Matter of Time: A Partial Test of Institutional Anomie Theory Using Cross-National Time Use Data

Objectives The institutional anomie theory of crime (IAT) has traditionally been tested using either survey-based attitudinal measures or government expenditures. However, data on how people use their time may offer more valid and unobtrusive indicators of the theory’s key concepts, since choosing how to spend one’s time is inherently an exercise in expressing values. The present study answers the call for time use data in IAT research.