DOCSLIB.ORG

Chapter 6 Sociological Mainstream Theories

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Chapter 6 Sociological Mainstream Theories 06-Hagan-45315.qxd 8/27/2007 5:37 PM Page 145 CHAPTER 6 SOCIOLOGICAL MAINSTREAM THEORIES Major Sociological Theoretical Approaches in Sutherland’s Theory of “Differential Association” Criminology In the News 6.1 CAP Index, Inc.., Crime Vulnerability Anomie Theories Assessment Emile Durkheim and “Anomie” Miller’s “Focal Concerns” Merton’s Theory of Anomie Matza’s “Delinquency and Drift” Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST) Social Control Theories Subcultural Theories Reckless’s “Containment” Theory Cohen’s “Lower Class Reaction” Theory Hirschi’s “Social Bond” Theory Cloward and Ohlin’s “Differential Opportunity” Theory Gottfredson and Hirschi’s “General Theory of Crime” Social Process Theories John Hagan’s “Power-Control” Theory The Chicago School Developmental and Life Course (DLC) Theories Shaw and McKay’s “Social Disorganization” Theory Farrington’s “Antisocial Potential” (AP) Theory Crime Files 6.1 Designing Out Crime Sampson and Laub’s “Life Course” Criminality Positive criminology accounts for too much delinquency. Taken at their terms, delinquency [crime] theories seem to predict far more delinquency than actually occurs. If delinquents were in fact radically different from the rest of conventional youth . Then involvement in delinquency would be more permanent and less transient, more pervasive and less intermittent than is apparently the case. Theories of delinquency yield an embarrassment of riches, which seemingly go unmatched in the real world. —David Matza, Delinquency and Drift (1964) he early classical, biological, and psychological traditions in criminology theory were similar in their relatively T conservative view of society (the consensus model) as well as in their search for the cause of crime in either lack of fear of deterrence, defective individual genetics, or the psyche. The individual criminal was the unit of analy- sis. The only departures from this deviant behavior approach to criminality were found in the writings of the eco- nomic theorists (Marx and Bonger) and the ecologists (Quetelet and Guerry). Economic and ecological theories constitute the groundwork for the preeminence of sociological approaches to criminological theory beginning in the 1930s in the United States. Societal conditions, groups, social disorganization, and conflict have become addi- tional units of analysis. Crime is perceived as a status (definition) as well as behavior (pathology), and sociological criminology in general takes a more critical stance toward the society itself as generator of criminal conduct. 06-Hagan-45315.qxd 8/27/2007 5:37 PM Page 146 INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY Major Sociological Theoretical Approaches in Criminology Table 6.1 is a more detailed outline of the sociological theories that were briefly presented in Table 4.1, Major Theoretical Approaches in Criminology. These include mainstream sociological theories: anomie, social process, social control, and developmental and life-course theories. Discussion will begin with the mainstream tradition and the views of late nineteenth- century sociologist Émile Durkheim and the “anomie theories” that he inspired. Other representa- tives of this approach are Robert Merton, Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin, and Albert Cohen. Anomie Theories Émile Durkheim and “Anomie” The writings of French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) were in sharp contrast to the Social Darwinist, individualist, and psychological and biological positivist theories dominant in the Table 6.1 Major Theoretical Approaches in Mainstream Criminology (Sociological)* Theoretical School Major Themes/Concepts Major Theorists Sociological “crime reflects consensus mode” Mainstream Anomie Theory “anomie (normlessness) lessens social control” Durkheim “anomie (gap between goals and means)creates Merton deviance” “differential social opportunity” Cloward and Ohlin “lower class reaction to middle class values” Cohen Social Process “social disorganization and social conditions” Shaw and McKay “routine activities” Cohen and Felson “crime is learned behavior, culturally/subculturally Sutherland transmitted” “local concerns of lower class” Miller “subterranean values, drift techniques of Matza neutralization” Social Control “containment theory” Reckless “social bonds weakened reducing individual stakes in Hirschi conformity” “low self-control and self-interest” Gottfredson and Hirschi Developmental/ “antisocial potential” Farrington Life Course “longitudinal studies” Blumstein “life course criminality” Sampson and Laub *See Table 7.1 for other theoretical approaches in criminology. 146 06-Hagan-45315.qxd 8/27/2007 5:37 PM Page 147 CHAPTER 6: Sociological Mainstream Theories late nineteenth century. The works of Durkheim represented a return to the thinking and orienta- tion of the statistical/ecological theories advocated by Quetelet and Guerry, an approach that had been preempted by the popularity of Lombroso and the early biological positivists. In his works—which included The Division of Labor in Society (1964), originally published in 1893, and Suicide (1951), first released in 1897—Durkheim insisted on the primacy of groups and social organizations as explanatory factors of human misconduct. As we said in Chapter 1, he viewed crime as a normal phenomenon in society because group reactions to deviant actions assist human groups in defining their moral boundaries. In his doctoral dissertation, The Rules of Sociological Method (1950), which was completed in 1893, Durkheim defined the sociologists’ role as that of systematic observers of “social facts,” empirically observable group characteristics that impact on human behavior. Durkheim’s analysis of suicide clearly demonstrated his hypothesis of group influences on individual propensity to suicide. In Suicide (1951) he identified several types, which included: altruistic (“selfless” suicide), egoistic (self-centered suicide), and anomic (suicide due to “anomie” or a state of normlessness in society). The latter concept is Durkheim’s principal contribution to the field of criminology. The term anomie appeared in the English language as early as 1591 and generally referred to a disregard for law (Fox, 1976, p. 115). Anomie, literally from the Greek “without norms,” as used by Durkheim involves a moral malaise; a lack of clear-cut norms with which to guide human conduct (normlessness). It may occur as a pervasive condition in society because of a failure of individuals to internalize the norms of society, an inability to adjust to changing norms, or even conflict within the norms themselves. Social trends in modern urban-industrial societies result in changing norms, confusion, and lessened social control over the individual. Individualism increases and new lifestyles emerge, per- haps yielding even greater freedom but also increasing the possibility for deviant behavior. The close ties of the individual to the family, village, and tradition (what Durkheim calls “mechanical solidarity”), though confining to the individual, maintained social control. In modern societies (characterized by “organic solidarity”) constraints on the individual weaken. In a theme that would influence many later criminological theories, Durkheim viewed anomie in modern societies as pro- duced by individual aspirations and ambitions and the search for new pleasures and sensations that are beyond achievement even in times of prosperity (Durkheim, 1951, p. 256). This notion of anomie would influence a number of criminological theories, constituting a theoretical school of thought within mainstream or conventional criminology that began with the work of Robert Merton in the late thirties and continued with Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin and Albert Cohen in the post-World War II period. Chronologically preceding these later develop- ments in the anomie tradition was the work of “the Chicago school” of sociology and another major approach—the social process school of thought. These theories were less concerned with the origin of crime in society and concentrated instead on the social process (learning, socialization, subcultural transmission) by which criminal values were transmitted to individuals by groups with which they were affiliated. Merton’s Theory of “Anomie” As part of the jointly sponsored American Society of Criminology and Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences’ “Criminology and Criminal Justice Oral History Project,” Robert Merton described how he developed some of his theories (American Society of Criminology, 2004). He was interested in examining “what is it about our society and cultural institutions, not just individual characteristics such as feeblemindedness, that causes deviance?” There is a dysfunction between the American dream (a cultural value) of success and social structure (means of achieving). Class and ethnic 147 06-Hagan-45315.qxd 8/27/2007 5:37 PM Page 148 INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY structures provided differential access. Merton wanted to look at deviance in addition to conform- ity in society and explain differential rates. Functionalism had concentrated on positive functions of things, and so he wanted to explore their dysfunctions. Robert Merton’s theory of “anomie” first appeared in 1938 in an article titled “Social Structure and Anomie.” Modifying Durkheim’s original concept, Merton (1957, pp. 131–94) viewed anomie as a condition that occurs when discrepancies exist between societal goals and the means available for their achievement. This discrepancy or strain between aspirations and achievement has resulted in Merton’s conception
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Growth of Criminological Theories
    THE GROWTH OF CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORIES Jonathon M. Heidt B.A., University of Montana, 2000 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS In the School of Criminology OJonathon M. Heidt 2003 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY November 2003 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Jonathon Heidt Degree: M.A. Title of Thesis: The Growth of Criminological Theories Examining Committee: Chair: ~ridnkurtch,P~JJ$ . D;. Robert ~ordoi,kh.~. Senior Supervisor Dr. Elizabeth Elliott, Ph.D. Member Sociology Department University at Albany - SUNY Date Approved: PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay The Growth of Criminological Theories Author: Name ABSTRACT In the last 50 years, an extensive array of theories has appeared within the field of criminology, many generated by the discipline of sociology.
    [Show full text]
  • Sociological Theories of Deviance: Definitions & Considerations
    Sociological Theories of Deviance: Definitions & Considerations NCSS Strands: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions Time, Continuity, and Change Grade level: 9-12 Class periods needed: 1.5- 50 minute periods Purpose, Background, and Context Sociologists seek to understand how and why deviance occurs within a society. They do this by developing theories that explain factors impacting deviance on a wide scale such as social frustrations, socialization, social learning, and the impact of labeling. Four main theories have developed in the last 50 years. Anomie: Deviance is caused by anomie, or the feeling that society’s goals or the means to achieve them are closed to the person Control: Deviance exists because of improper socialization, which results in a lack of self-control for the person Differential association: People learn deviance from associating with others who act in deviant ways Labeling: Deviant behavior depends on who is defining it, and the people in our society who define deviance are usually those in positions of power Students will participate in a “jigsaw” where they will become knowledgeable in one theory and then share their knowledge with the rest of the class. After all theories have been presented, the class will use the theories to explain an historic example of socially deviant behavior: Zoot Suit Riots. Objectives & Student Outcomes Students will: Be able to define the concepts of social norms and deviance 1 Brainstorm behaviors that fit along a continuum from informal to formal deviance Learn four sociological theories of deviance by reading, listening, constructing hypotheticals, and questioning classmates Apply theories of deviance to Zoot Suit Riots that occurred in the 1943 Examine the role of social norms for individuals, groups, and institutions and how they are reinforced to maintain a order within a society; examine disorder/deviance within a society (NCSS Standards, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Religion and Reform in the City: the Re-Thinking Chicago Movement of the 1930S
    Wright State University CORE Scholar History Faculty Publications History 1986 Religion and Reform in the City: The Re-Thinking Chicago Movement of the 1930s Jacob Dorn Wright State University - Main Campus, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/history Part of the History Commons Repository Citation Dorn, J. (1986). Religion and Reform in the City: The Re-Thinking Chicago Movement of the 1930s. Church History, 55 (3), 323-337. https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/history/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History at CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Religion and Reform in the City: The Re-Thinking Chicago Movement of the 1930s JACOB H. DORN Historians have produced a rich and sophisticated literature on urban reform in the progressive era before the First World War. It includes numerous studies of individual cities, biographies of urban leaders, and analyses of particular movements and organizations. This literature illu- minates important variations among reformers and their achievements, the relationships between urban growth and reform, and the functional role of the old-style political machines against which progressives battled. Similarly, there are many examinations of progressive-era reformers' ideas about and attitudes toward the burgeoning industrial cities that had come into being with disquieting rapidity during their own lifetimes. Some of these works go well beyond the controversial conclusions of Morton and Lucia White in The Intellectual Versus the City (1964) to find more complex-and sometimes more positive-assessments of the new urban civilization.' Substantially less is known about efforts to reform particular cities and about the ideas and attitudes of urban intellectuals in the interwar years, especially the 1930s.
    [Show full text]
  • Reflections on Richard A. Cloward
    REFLECTIONS ON RICHARD A. CLOWARD Ken Grossinger Ken Grossinger, M.S. W., was Richard Cloward's student and a long time friend. He works at the AFL-CIO. I am not sure whether Richard Cloward and mentor. As Richard's student, I was stmck took me under his wing of his own volition, or instantly by his enormous intellect and if I was so persistent in my determination that scholarship. In the classroom, he spoke with he had no altemative. In 1980, after a four- dry humor, sharp insight and passion, and year hiatus from undergraduate school, I always with a thought provoking style. He entered the Columbia University School of possessed a sweeping knowledge of history Social Work (CUSSW). I had all but resigned and delivered a bravura performance for his myself to doing some combination of law and students. social work in order to make a living, or perhaps Before entering CUSSW, I worked at a I would eam a Ph.D. and teach. I assumed residential treatment home for delinquent youth. politics, my first love, would have to become One day, I was describing my experiences at an avocation. the home to Richard, talking to him about Then, as today, if one is not exposed to delinquency and arguing that society wrongfiilly political careers through family or friends, or defined deviant behavior as a psychological as part of a social movement, there is no dysfunction when it actually expressed obvious way to become famiUar with and leam something more. The next day he brought me about job opportunities in community organizing, Medicalization of Deviance, a book that philanthropy, labor, or other public interest work.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pacific Coast and the Casual Labor Economy, 1919-1933
    © Copyright 2015 Alexander James Morrow i Laboring for the Day: The Pacific Coast and the Casual Labor Economy, 1919-1933 Alexander James Morrow A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2015 Reading Committee: James N. Gregory, Chair Moon-Ho Jung Ileana Rodriguez Silva Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Department of History ii University of Washington Abstract Laboring for the Day: The Pacific Coast and the Casual Labor Economy, 1919-1933 Alexander James Morrow Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor James Gregory Department of History This dissertation explores the economic and cultural (re)definition of labor and laborers. It traces the growing reliance upon contingent work as the foundation for industrial capitalism along the Pacific Coast; the shaping of urban space according to the demands of workers and capital; the formation of a working class subject through the discourse and social practices of both laborers and intellectuals; and workers’ struggles to improve their circumstances in the face of coercive and onerous conditions. Woven together, these strands reveal the consequences of a regional economy built upon contingent and migratory forms of labor. This workforce was hardly new to the American West, but the Pacific Coast’s reliance upon contingent labor reached its apogee after World War I, drawing hundreds of thousands of young men through far flung circuits of migration that stretched across the Pacific and into Latin America, transforming its largest urban centers and working class demography in the process. The presence of this substantial workforce (itinerant, unattached, and racially heterogeneous) was out step with the expectations of the modern American worker (stable, married, and white), and became the warrant for social investigators, employers, the state, and other workers to sharpen the lines of solidarity and exclusion.
    [Show full text]
  • Anomie: Concept, Theory, Research Promise
    Anomie: Concept, Theory, Research Promise Max Coleman Oberlin College Sociology Department Senior Honors Thesis April 2014 Table of Contents Dedication and Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 I. What Is Anomie? Introduction 6 Anomie in The Division of Labor 9 Anomie in Suicide 13 Debate: The Causes of Desire 23 A Sidenote on Dualism and Neuroplasticity 27 Merton vs. Durkheim 29 Critiques of Anomie Theory 33 Functionalist? 34 Totalitarian? 38 Subjective? 44 Teleological? 50 Positivist? 54 Inconsistent? 59 Methodologically Unsound? 61 Sexist? 68 Overly Biological? 71 Identical to Egoism? 73 In Conclusion 78 The Decline of Anomie Theory 79 II. Why Anomie Still Matters The Anomic Nation 90 Anomie in American History 90 Anomie in Contemporary American Society 102 Mental Health 120 Anxiety 126 Conclusions 129 Soldier Suicide 131 School Shootings 135 III. Looking Forward: The Solution to Anomie 142 Sociology as a Guiding Force 142 Gemeinschaft Within Gesellschaft 145 The Religion of Humanity 151 Final Thoughts 155 Bibliography 158 2 To those who suffer in silence from the pain they cannot reveal. Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Professor Vejlko Vujačić for his unwavering support, and for sharing with me his incomparable sociological imagination. If I succeed as a professor of sociology, it will be because of him. I am also deeply indebted to Émile Durkheim, who first exposed the anomic crisis, and without whom no one would be writing a sociology thesis. 3 Abstract: The term anomie has declined in the sociology literature. Apart from brief mentions, it has not featured in the American Sociological Review for sixteen years. Moreover, the term has narrowed and is now used almost exclusively to discuss deviance.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ladies Vanish? American Sociology and the Genealogy of Its Missing Women on Wikipedia Wei Luo, Julia Adams and Hannah Brueck
    The Ladies Vanish? American Sociology and the Genealogy of its Missing Women on Wikipedia Wei Luo, Julia Adams and Hannah Brueckner Working Paper # 0012 January 2018 Division of Social Science Working Paper Series New York University Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island P.O Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, UAE https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/academics/divisions/social-science.html 1 The Ladies Vanish? American Sociology and the Genealogy of its Missing Women on Wikipedia Wei Luo Yale University [email protected] Julia Adams Yale University [email protected] Hannah Brueckner NYU-Abu Dhabi [email protected] Acknowledgements The authors gratefully acknowledge support for this research from the National Science Foundation (grant #1322971), research assistance from Yasmin Kakar, and comments from Scott Boorman, anonymous reviewers, participants in the Comparative Research Workshop at Yale Sociology, as well as from panelists and audience members at the Social Science History Association. 2 The Ladies Vanish? American Sociology and the Genealogy of its Missing Women on Wikipedia Wei Luo, Julia Adams and Hannah Brueckner “People just don't vanish and so forth.” “But she has.” “What?” “Vanished.” “Who?” “The old dame.” … “But how could she?” “What?” “Vanish.” “I don't know.” “That just explains my point. People just don't disappear into thin air.” --- Alfred Hitchcock, The Lady Vanishes (1938)1 INTRODUCTION In comparison to many academic disciplines, sociology has been relatively open to women since its founding, and seems increasingly so. Yet many notable female sociologists are missing from the public history of American sociology, both print and digital. The rise of crowd- sourced digital sources, particularly the largest and most influential, Wikipedia, seems to promise a new and more welcoming approach.
    [Show full text]
  • "A Road to Peace and Freedom": the International Workers Order and The
    “ A ROAD TO PEACE AND FREEDOM ” Robert M. Zecker “ A ROAD TO PEACE AND FREEDOM ” The International Workers Order and the Struggle for Economic Justice and Civil Rights, 1930–1954 TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia • Rome • Tokyo TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2018 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System of Higher Education All rights reserved Published 2018 All reasonable attempts were made to locate the copyright holders for the materials published in this book. If you believe you may be one of them, please contact Temple University Press, and the publisher will include appropriate acknowledgment in subsequent editions of the book. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Zecker, Robert, 1962- author. Title: A road to peace and freedom : the International Workers Order and the struggle for economic justice and civil rights, 1930-1954 / Robert M. Zecker. Description: Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2018. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017035619| ISBN 9781439915158 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781439915165 (paper : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: International Workers Order. | International labor activities—History—20th century. | Labor unions—United States—History—20th century. | Working class—Societies, etc.—History—20th century. | Working class—United States—Societies, etc.—History—20th century. | Labor movement—United States—History—20th century. | Civil rights and socialism—United States—History—20th century. Classification: LCC HD6475.A2
    [Show full text]
  • The Chicago School of Sociology 1915-1940 Between 1915 And
    Mapping the Young Metropolis: The Chicago School of Sociology 1915-1940 Between 1915 and 1940, a small faculty in the University of Chicago Department of Sociology, working with dozens of talented graduate students, intensively studied the city of Chicago . They aspired to use the approaches of social science in developing a new field of research, and they took the city as their laboratory. Chicago was the ideal place for such an effort: in the last half of the nineteenth century it had grown from a population of 30,000 in 1850, to 1,700,000 in 1900, probably faster than any city in history. More than one-third of the population had been born abroad, in Germany, Poland, Ireland, Italy, and dozens of other countries. It had a panoply of social problems, such as prostitution, drunkenness, hoboes, and boys' gangs. The Department of Sociology faculty sent students out into Chicago's "real world" to collect information. They employed all sorts of research methods—they refined existing ones, such as censuses, surveys and mapping, and they invented new ones, such as the personal life history. They described and analyzed what they had seen. The Chicago sociology faculty wrote books, such as The Polish Peasant in Europe and America. Graduate students in sociology wrote dissertations, many of which became books published by the University of Chicago Press. Notable among them are The Ghetto, The Hobo, The Gang, and The Gold Coast and the Slum. Many of the books became sociological classics. Prior to this work, sociology was for the most part a combination of history and philosophy, an armchair discipline.
    [Show full text]
  • Housing Policy in the Great Society, Part Two
    Joint Center for Housing Studies Harvard University Into the Wild Blue Yonder: The Urban Crisis, Rocket Science, and the Pursuit of Transformation Housing Policy in the Great Society, Part Two Alexander von Hoffman March 2011 W11-3 The research for this working paper was conducted with the support of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, The Ford Foundation, and the Fannie Mae Foundation. © by Alexander von Hoffman. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. Off we go into the wild blue yonder, Climbing high into the sun Introduction Of the several large and important domestic housing and urban programs produced by Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society administration, the best-known is Model Cities. Although it lasted only from 1966 to 1974, its advocates believed Model Cities had promised a better tomorrow for America’s cities and bitterly lamented its termination—blaming Richard Nixon’s policies, diversion of funds for the Vietnam war, and the nation’s lack of commitment to social progress. Yet the legislation that created Model Cities was ambitious, contradictory, and vague. As such, it vividly expressed the idealistic impulses, currents of thought, and reactions to events that converged, however incoherently, in national urban policy of the 1960s. At the center of the fervor for domestic policy was the president of the United States, Lyndon Johnson, who hungered for dramatic new programs that would transform the country the way New Deal policies had reshaped America in his youth.
    [Show full text]
  • A Thesis Entitled Anomie and Development—A Cross-National
    A Thesis entitled Anomie and Development—A Cross-National Study by Amin Etemadifar Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Sociology ________________________________________ Dr. Dwight Haase, Committee Chair ________________________________________ Dr. Barbara Coventry, Committee Member ________________________________________ Dr. Jerry Van Hoy, Committee Member ________________________________________ Dr. Amanda Bryant-Friedrich, Dean College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo December 2016 Copyright 2016, Seyed Amin Etemadifar This document is copyrighted material. Under copyright law, no parts of this document may be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author. An Abstract of Anomie and Development—A Cross-National Study by Amin Etemadifar Submitted to the Graduate Faculty as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts Degree in Sociology The University of Toledo December 2016 This is a quantitative cross-national study examining the relationship between development and anomie in 100 countries using the data extracted from the World Bank and United Nations Development Program. The main goal of the study is to inspect Durkheim’s theory of anomie, as he views anomie as a threat to the stability and integration of society. So the study distinguishes such a formulation of anomie with that of Merton and his followers who reformulated it as a concept merely to explain the issue of crime. Independent variables of study include the Human Development Index (measured based on health, education, and income), Political Development Index (measured based on efficiency of government, rule of law, and accountability of government), social inequality, migration, access to the Internet, international economic integration, urbanization, gender development, and size of population, and their effects on anomie are examined by a OLS curvilinear regression technique.
    [Show full text]
  • Anomie and Crime in the Family in a Traditional and Transitional Society
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by European Scientific Journal (European Scientific Institute) European Scientific Journal April edition vol. 8, No.7 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431 UDC:316.356.2:316.628(=18) 364.63-027.553(=18) ANOMIE AND CRIME IN THE FAMILY IN A TRADITIONAL AND TRANSITIONAL SOCIETY Miranda Rira University “Aleksander Xhuvani”, Elbasan, Albania Abstract This paper aims at elaborating and understanding of murder and homicide in the Albanian family. During the last two decades, Albanians have experienced rapid changes, great turmoil and transitions from a communist, traditional ethnic-based society towards a new era of modern norms of a “western” society. We will build on Durkhemian’s paradigm on anomie as the first leading cause to crime and deviance. We hypothesize that: “when ethnic-based family oriented societies face new rules and regulations, a deregulation of the social system and a disruption of family ties is displayed, hence a domain of anomie is created, a threat of collective conscience of the society, a state of being lost between past and future which influences people to be more prone to committing murder and crimes towards society, towards their families and towards themselves, committing suicide. The second hypotheses is that: the honor killings are nothing but a rudiment of the old patriarchal societies and an expression of the collision between the new imposed norms and old, well-established traditions. Keywords: Anomie, crime, tradition, transition Introduction Researchers and theorists during the XX-th century have focused on two main theoretical derived models to explain homicide, one stressing the socio-economic conditions (Blau and Blaw 1981; Braithwaite 1979; Loftin and Hill 1974; Parker and Smith 1979; Stack 1983; Williams 1984; Parker 1989; Kennedy 1991; Lee 2000; Kim and Pridemore 2005; Green and Sabini 2006; Pridemore and Kim 2007; Antonaccio and Tittle (2007) et al.
    [Show full text]