Anomie or “Strain”
Theories

 French Sociologist
 Suicide
 Crime is “Functional”
 Mechanical vs. Organic Solidarity
 Altruistic vs. Common Criminal

Durkheim as the Root of all
Sociological Theory
 Durkheim emphasized several different themes
– Social Integration
– Humans as greedy, self-interested
• “Insatiable Desires”
– Anomie

Two Main Traditions in Sociolgoy
 Chicago School of Crime/Social
Disorganization
– Social Integration
– Capping Human Desires
• Differential Association
• Informal Social Control (Control Theories)
 Anomie/Strain
– Industrial Prosperity
– Anomie

 Social Structure and Anomie (1938)
 From Durkheim: Institutionalized norms are weakened in societies that place an intense value on economic success
 Applied this to the United States
– The “American Dream” as a virtue and
VICE

 The “road not taken”
 Explanation of high crime rates in the
United States?
– Follows close to Durkheim
– Gist = Unrestrained American capitalism and fetish with money creates anomie
 Picked up by Messner and Rosenfeld

 Cultural Goals in U.S.?
– The American Dream = $ = Universal
 Institutionalized Means?
– Given social structure in the U.S., the means are to achieve $ are unequally distributed
– Segment of society with no way to attain goal b/c they lack means

MODES OF CULTURAL INSTITUT.
ADAPTATION GOALS MEANS
1. Conformity + +
2. Innovation + -
3. Ritualism -
4. Retreatism -
+
-
5. Rebellion +/+/-

 First tested as the disjuncture between educational or economic “aspirations” and
“expectations”
 Little empirical support for this
– Delinquents tend to have low expectations and aspirations
– BUT —is this really a great measure of strain?

 “Blocked Opportunities”
– 50/50 odds study finds a relationship
– Even here, weak association
 Disappointment with current financial status
– One study, but found moderate relationship, even after controlling for other theories

 Is crime a “lower class” phenomena?
 Cannot explain “expressive” crimes
– In Merton’s defense, this was a “mid-range” theory of crime
 Why ritualist vs. innovator?
 Weak empirical support
 Hirschi = “Oversocialized Man”

 1950s1960s = “Subcultrual” theories
– Mix anomie tradition with differential association
 1990s = Revisions of Merton’s theory
– Individual Level = “General Strain Theory”
– Macro Level = “Institutional Anomie”