Chapter 6 - Anomie Theory Flashcards
What is Anomie Theory?
- also known as Strain theory
- argues that anyone could be a criminal
- when disruption occurs (and refers to the breakdown of social norms and the condition that those norms no longer control societal members)
What is Anomie the product of?
o Social components that work together become isolated
o Complex industrial society
o Evolution of society causes imbalance
What did Emile Durkheim believe?
- family becomes less important than state
—-> main goal for society was to be working and making money - individual as product of the society
- saw society as evolving
- saw social statistics as real ‘facts’
What is Durkheim’s View on Social History
- Society evolved from a simple form (mechanical) to a complex form (organics)
- simple to more complex
How does Change disrupts society’s equilibrium?
Upsets the balance of unity:
Organic societies have continual state of anomie (community always stuck in a state of not having what they need for having a happy and fulfilling life)
What is Absolute deprivation?
people living in absolute poverty
- keeping up with the jones
What did Durkheim’s Books Focus on through Anomie?
o Focus on social conditions (where rules lose value)
o Anomie represented by high rates of suicide, crime, and deviance
Who is Robert K. Merton?
- highly educated
social heritage of mertons theory
great depression
o depicted presence of anomie in society
UCR
- Enough crime statistics collected to compare crime rates among groups
–> lower class had higher crime rates
Intellectual heritage of anomie theory
- Sorokin and Simpsons translations of Durkheim’s work
- Chicago school vs east coast sociology
- Parsons grand theory
o Fit with Durkheim’s structural functionalist ideas, suggested rates of crime in society need to be examined, not individual crime
Merton’s Anomie Theory
- Uses rates of crime, suicide and attempts to explain them
—> Never meant to focus on individual criminality - Societal-level events explain how changes affect groups
Anomie Theory Foundations
- Focuses on embedded social structure and cultural differences in society
-social disconnection between goals and means of society
Anomie and the American Dream
- Society tells us what to achieve but not everyone has access to socially approved means
- Social class pyramid keeps poor on bottom
Merton’s Modes of Adaptation
- Deviance is created in way people adapt to inability to reach goals or to lack of access to means
5 modes of adaptation (all are forms of deviance)
- Conformity: accepts goals and means; most common adaption – ex; students
-True conformity is NOT a mode of adaptation and results when both the goals and means are available (i.e., the wealthy) - Innovation: accepts goals, rejects and makes up own means - ex; criminal that believes in the goal but pursues different means
- most crime is this type - Ritualism - reject goals as means are unreachable - ex; public servant
- Retreatism – rejects goals and means, ex; drug addicts, alcoholics, homeless
- is now more common - Rebellion – replaces original goals and means with their own - ex; hippie
