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Reconstructing Institutional Anomie Theory Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 6-2016 Capitalism, Social Institutions, and Pathways to Crime: Reconstructing Institutional Anomie Theory Amanda Marie Smith Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Amanda Marie, "Capitalism, Social Institutions, and Pathways to Crime: Reconstructing Institutional Anomie Theory" (2016). Dissertations. 1598. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1598 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CAPITALISM, SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS, AND PATHWAYS TO CRIME: RECONSTRUCTING INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE THEORY by Amanda Marie Smith A dissertation submitted to the Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Sociology Western Michigan University June 2016 Doctoral Committee: Susan M. Carlson, Ph.D., Chair Ronald C. Kramer, Ph.D. Chien-Juh Gu, Ph.D. Raymond J. Michalowski, Ph.D CAPITALISM, SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS, AND PATHWAYS TO CRIME: RECONSTRUCTING INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE THEORY Amanda Marie Smith, Ph.D Western Michigan University, 2016 Messner and Rosenfeld (1994; 2013) developed the Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT) as an explanation for the high rates of serious crime in the United States. They theorize that high serious crime rates are the result of a culture that values material gain as the primary goal (i.e., the American Dream) with a weak social institutional structure. This study argues that IAT must be reconstructed because Messner and Rosenfeld: (1) discount religion as a social institution of importance, (2) exclude high inequality as a source of structural blockages, and (3) use the concept of the American Dream as a proxy for neoliberal capitalist ideology. As such, I argue that high serious crime rates are the result of the combination of economically-dominated non-economic social institutions— family, religion, education, and polity—coupled with high inequality, and a neoliberal social structure of accumulation. This dissertation uses qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to investigate the configurations of social institutions that lead to high serious crime and not high serious crime in the 50 U.S. states in 2007. Multiple institutional pathways were found that lead to high serious crime and not high serious crime. The pathways for states located in the South show that the combination of not weak religion and high inequality with either weak education or weak polity lead to high serious crime. The pathways for states not located in the South show more diversity with four pathways leading to high serious crime. Weak family, in combination with other institutions, leads to high serious crime. More generally, the findings demonstrate the importance of cultural issues beyond the American Dream. For example, states located in the South have distinctly different cultural issues with race playing a central role. In addition, this study determined the pathways that lead to not high serious crime. The majority of states not in the set of high serious crime are not located in the South. The four pathways to not high serious crime for states not located in the South had not high inequality in common. Further, these pathways suggest that the combination of not high inequality with not weak family and not weak religion or not weak family and not weak education leads to not high serious crime. These results point to a need for reducing inequality coupled with strengthening primary and secondary sites of socialization, important sources of informal social control, as a way to reduce high serious crime. The limitations of this dissertation are the cross-sectional nature of the study and U.S. states as the unit of analysis. Future research should: (1) test the findings from this study with data from different points in time, particularly from similar social structures of accumulation; (2) use countries as the unit of analysis in order to assess if pathways to high serious crime differ among countries; and (3) let the pathways that lead to high serious crime indicate which interaction effects to include in quantitative RIAT research. © 2016 Amanda Marie Smith ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to start by thanking my dissertation advisor, mentor, and friend, Susan M. Carlson. She was right there next to me, quite often via telephone, throughout the entire process. She encouraged me to keep asking tough questions and to consider a world of possibilities. I would also like to thank my committee members, especially Raymond Michalowski. Throughout the years, he has encouraged me to always consider hidden power structures. I would also like to recognize the support of the department of sociology at Western Michigan University for its support during the last five years. In particular, I would like to thank the graduate students. Similarly, I would like to thank the department of sociology, anthropology, and criminal justice at the University of Michigan – Flint. During the last year, my colleagues have been supportive of my efforts. Finally, I must recognize my husband, Justin, for his love and support during this process and our three “fur-kids” – Sisko, Cali, and Scooter – for providing reasons to take a walk and think. Amanda Marie Smith ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. ii LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... xiiii LIST OF FIGURES ...........................................................................................................xv 1.INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................1 Purpose of the Study ................................................................................................1 Research Questions and Design ...............................................................................2 Significance of the Study .........................................................................................3 Limitations of the Dissertation.................................................................................3 Organization of the Study ........................................................................................4 2. INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE THOERY: THE ORIGINAL FORMULATION .............7 IAT: An Accidental Theory .....................................................................................8 U.S. Experience of Crime ............................................................................... 8 Criminological Underpinnings of IAT ........................................................... 9 Culture: The American Dream ..................................................................... 11 Social Structure: Economic Dominance ....................................................... 12 Summary of IAT ........................................................................................... 22 Criticisms of IAT ...................................................................................................24 iii Table of Contents—Continued CHAPTER IAT and Structural Inequality ........................................................................ 24 The Ahistorical Nature of the American Dream Concept ............................ 26 The Neoliberal American Dream .................................................................. 27 Defining Serious Crime ................................................................................ 30 Exclusion of Religion as a Social Institution of Interest .............................. 32 Conclusion .............................................................................................................37 3. LITERATURE REVIEW ..............................................................................................38 Empirical Tests with Countries as the Unit of Analysis ........................................39 Empirical Tests with the United States and Subnational Groups as the Unit of Analysis ..............................................................................49 Research Gaps ........................................................................................................56 Unit of Analysis ............................................................................................ 56 Measurement of “Serious Crime” ................................................................. 57 Inclusion and Measurement of Social Institutions ........................................ 58 Time Point of Interest ................................................................................... 59 Methods of Data Analysis ............................................................................. 60 Conclusion .............................................................................................................61 iv Table of Contents—Continued CHAPTER 4. ADDING HISTORICAL CONTEXT: REVISED INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE THEORY .......................................................................64 Social Structure of Accumulation Theory .............................................................65
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