Emile Durkheim Anomie or Strain Theory Essay Example For Students

Emile Durkheim Anomie or Strain Theory Essay DURKHEIM AND ANOMIE OR STRAIN THEORYby Brent M. Pergram, Masers of Arts in Sociology Emile Durkheim is the founder of the study of anomie theory or strain theory that believes that anomie or strain causes a person to commit suicide or some other deviant act. This research paper will discuss several articles that deal with strain theory and with Durkheims theory of anomie. I will also discuss articles on Mertons strain theory, and on Agnews General Strain Theory that expands the concept of strain. Durkheim is the founder of anomie theory, but Merton, and later Agnew made changes to the theory to try to make it a general theory that could explain most types of deviance. Anomie is a concept that is associated with two theorists, Emile Durkheim and RobertMerton.Durkheim introduced the term in his 1893 book The Division of Labor in Society, when he described it as a condition of deregulation occurring in society. This occurs when the general rules of a society have broken down and that pe ople no longer know what to expect from one another. It is this state of normlessness or deregulation in society that leads to deviant behavior. Durkheim used the term anomie again in his classic 1897 book Suicide, referring to a morally deregulated condition were people have inadequate moral control over their actions. Therefore, a given society may be anomic if people do not know when to stop striving for success, or how to treat others along the way. Regardless of which of these two descriptions of anomie one uses, a brake down in either the rules of society or the moral norms, Durkheim clearly meant to describe a disruption or normal societal conditions.Durkheim was preoccupied with the effects of social change. Durkheim best illustrated his concept of anomie not in a discussion of crime but of suicide. In the Division of Labor in Society, Durkheim proposed two concepts. First, that societies evolved from a simple, non-specialized form, called mechanical, toward a highly complex, specialized form, called organic. In a simple mechanical society people behave and think alike, and basically perform the same work tasks and have the same group-oriented goals. When societies become more complex, or organic, work also becomes more complex. In an organic society, people are no longer tied to one another and social bonds are impersonal. Thus anomie refers to a breakdown of social norms and is a condition where norms no longer control the activities of members in society. The individuals in society cannot find their place in it, without clear rules to help guide them. Changing conditions in society as well as adjustment of life leads to dissatisfaction, conflict, and deviance. Durkheim observed that social periods of disruption, such as economic depression lead to increased levels of anomie and higher rates of crime, suicide, and deviance. Durkheim believed that sudden change caused a state of anomie. The system breaks down, either during a great prosperity or a great depression, anomie is the same result (Durkheim). Robert K. Merton, borrowed Durkheims concept of anomie to form his own theory, called Strain Theory. It differs somewhat from Durkheims in that Merton argued that the real problem is not created by a sudden social change, as Durkheim proposed, but by a social structure that holds out the same goals to all its members without giving them equal means to achieve them. He believes that it is this lack of integration between what the culture calls for and what the structure permits that causes deviant behavior. Thus deviance is a symptom of the social structure. Merton borrowed Durkheims notion of anomie to describe the breakdown of normative systems. Mertons theory does not focus on crime, but upon various acts of deviance, which may lead to criminal behavior. Merton believes that there are certain goals which are strongly emphasized by a given society. Society emphasizes certain means to reach those goals, such as education, and hard work.But not everyone has the equal access to the legitimate means to attain those goals, which sets the stage for anomie. Merton presents five modes of adapting to strain caused by the restricted access to socially approved goals and means. He didnt mean that every person that was denied legitimate means to societys goals became deviant. Instead, the modes of adaptation depends on the persons attitudes toward cultural goals and the institutional means to attain them. Conformity is the most common mode of adaptation. It occurs when a person accepts both the goals as well as the prescribed means for achieving those goals. Conformists will accept, though not always achieve, the goals of society and the means approved to achieve them. Persons that adapt through innovation accept societal goals but have few legitimate means to achieve those goals, thus they innovate their own means to get ahead, such as through robbery, or other criminal acts. In the third adaptation mode of ritualism, individuals abandon the goals they once believed to be within their reach and dedicate themselves to their current lifestyl e. Thus they play by the rules and have a daily routine that is safe. Retreatism is the adaptation of those who give up not only the goals but also the means. They usually retreat, by way of various addictions, such as alcoholism and drug abuse. They escape into a nonproductive, non-goals oriented lifestyle. The final type of adaptation is rebellion, which occurs when the cultural goals and the legitimate means are rejected. This forces the individual to create their own goals and means, such as by protest or revolutionary activities. In the 1970s, strain theory came under heavy attack after having dominated deviance research in the decade of the 1960s, prompting that it become abandoned. But, since then strain theory has survived such attacks, but has been left with diminished influence. In 1992, Robert Agnew proposed a general strain theory that focuses on at least three measures of strain. He argues that actual or anticipated failure to achieve positively valued goals, actual or anticipated removal of positively valued stimuli, and actual or anticipated presentation of negative stimuli all result in strain. Agnews strain theory focuses primarily on negative relationships with others, in that a person is not treated in a way that he expects or wants. Agnew argues that people are pressured into criminal or deviant acts by negative affective states , such as anger, which results in negative relationships with others. He argues that such negative affective states leads to pressure which then leads to illegitimate ways to attain a goal. Other strain theories explain strain in a way that relationships with others prevent one from reaching positively valued goals. They focus primarily on goal blockage, that which is often experienced by the middle or lower classes. Agnew argues that strain theory is central in explaining crime and deviance, but that it needs more revision to play a central role in sociology. His theory is written at a social-psychological level so that it focuses on a persons immediate social environment. Much of the theory is focused toward adolescent criminality, or delinquency, because so much of the data available for testing involves surveys of adolescents. He argues that his theory is capable of overcoming empirical and theoretical criticisms associated with previous strain theories. Whitney Pope et al (1981) article, Sociologys One Law, looked at Emile Durkheims theory of egoism, which says that suicide varies proportionately based on the level of integration of an individual in a given society. Such as that Protestants have a religion that is less socially integrated than that of Catholics, which leads to differing levels of suicide. Egoism is a concept that basically means lack of integration in society, and is only one part of the larger concept of anomie. For the purpose of the research Durkheim had a nominal definition that looked only at different levels of integration among two religions and the impact on suicide. Religion is the dependent variable that Durkheim used in his work. The authors add the nations level of development as a variable to see its impact on suicide. The operational definition of the concept that was used, was to look at suicide rates from Protestant and Catholic nations. The hypothesis of Durkheim was that because Catholics have a more socially integrated or controlling religion that they would have less egoistic suicide than Protestants. The theory and hypothesis was measured by use of cross national longitudinal data on suicide rates from seven Catholic, and five Protestant nations. Pope et al (1981) article compared the national, female, and male suicide rates with and without control for the nations level of development, and for four different time periods from 1919 to 1972 to draw conclusions about suicide rates at the national level. In terms of reliability the authors show that when you control for the nations level of development, there is no difference between Catholic and Protestant suicide rates, which disproves part of Durkheims theory. They do say that the application of his whole theory of integration both egoism and altruism does show that the data is consistent with his theory of variation in suicide rates. In order to test reliability the authors looked at cross national data on suicide over three different time periods. The article is clearly not totally reliable because the post World War II result s supported the hypothesis that Protestants have higher suicide rates than Catholics. The problem with validity of the suicide rates also comes into question, when one looks at the researchers that collect the data in each country because they may not define suicide the same way. Also they may not report some deaths as suicide due to the stigma associated with suicide. Likewise, some nations may not have consistently good data collection methods. Also one can call into question the validity of whether national data can be used to accurately measure an individual suicide or would the results be an ecological fallacy. Frans Van Poppel et al (1996) tests Durkheims theory of suicide without committing the ecological fallacy.They say that the data adduced by Durkheim in support of the association between religion and suicide have seldom been subject to scrutiny, and when it has been examined, the scrutiny has been based on data subject to the ecological fallacy. They use data from the Netherlands for the years 1905 to 1910, to test the statistical support for Durkheims theory about religion and suicide without committing the ecological fallacy. They find the Catholic-Protestant differential in suicide rates to be explicable entirely in terms of the practice of categorizing as sudden deaths or deaths from ill-defined or unspecified causes a large proportion of deaths among Catholics which would have been categorized as suicides had they occurred among Protestants (p.500).They say We cannot say, on the basis of this analysis, whether Durkheims or some other-sociological explanation of suicide is valid . We can say that a sociological explanation receives no support from these data: The data, although roughly contemporary with and similar to those used by Durkheim, are far superior to his because they are not subject to the risk of committing the ecological fallacy (p.506). Robert M. Fernquist (1995-96) article looks elderly suicide in Western Europe to try to show a different approach to Durkheims theory of political integration. He used data on attitudes to measue political integration, to find that political integration and suicide are negatively associated for the elderly in nine western European nations from 19 75 to 1989. Also associated with elderly suicide are the divorce rate and deaths due to cirrhosis of the liver. Religious book production was not found to be associated with suicide in the normative manner. Reasons for these associations are discussed. He says that the rate of suicide rises with age, which is consistent with the previous literature on the subject. He says that political integration, in conjunction with the economy, has been found to be associated with suicide of persons under the age of sixty-five, little is known about how it effects elderly suicide. He discusses the literature, by saying that Durkheim found that political crisis are negatively associated with suicide. Fernquist says that the political environment of western Europe from 1975 to 1989 was a time of great political unrest, with nine nations asked to vote on the unification of the European Community. He used aggregate level data to examine cross national suicide rates of persons 65 to 74, and 75 and older, and obtained age-gender specific suicide rates from the World Health Organization. Fernquist says that the only significant negative association between political integration and suicide is for females age 65 to 74, while all other independent variables are significantly correlated with suicide for each age-gender group in the expected directions. Also he finds that the divorce rate and cirrhosis of the liver are associated with increased suicide rates (p.44) In conclusion he says that the data on attitudes of the elderly toward political unification of western Europe are significantly associated with suicide (p.45-46) The findings suggest that Durkheims concept of what political integration entails could be expanded, if only in the case of the elderly, to include attitudes toward politics as well as political events themselves (p.46). Steven Stacks (1990) article on the effect of divorce on suicide in Denmark, from 1951 to 1980, looks at the effect of marital dissolution on suicide from a cultural and institutional framework different from previous studies that had focused on America. His article focuses on Denmark, which has a different cultural and institutional context than the United States. He says that a Cochrane-Orcutt iterative regression analysis replicates the American-based pattern for Denmark. The divorce index is more closely associated than the unemployment rate with changes in the suicide rate. He found that a 1% increase in divorce is associated with a .32% increase in suicide. He also found that divorce trends also predict the incidence of youth suicide. The article further confirms that the generalization that links rapid change in kinship structures to suicide in industrial societies (Stack, 1990: 359). Stack devotes a section of his paper to the theoretical perspectives dealing with the subject of marital dissolution and suicide, where he discusses Durkheim. He says that some critics of Durkheims social integration perspective, says that its not testable because he never presented an explicit denotative measure of social integration. But most of the work on divorce and suicide does employ a Durkheimian explanatory scheme, such as the one Stack uses in this present study. Durkheims theory of divorce and suicide is only a part of his larger paradigm. Durkheim constructed a theory of suicide based on the concepts of egoism, which is the lack of integration and anomie, which is the lack of regulation (Stack, 1990: 360). He discusses Durkheims position on gender differences in terms of the divorce-suicide relationship, and says that it is not altogether consistent. First Durkheim says that divorced men and women do kill themselves between three or four times more often than married persons. The data he presents clearly shows that divorce affects both genders about the same as compared to those married. But in another section of his book on Suicide, Durkheim says that women gain little from marriage, as compared to men. I would probably say that this is not a contradiction, because even though women that are single or widowed are more likely to commit suicide as his data showed, women that are married are less integrated into society as their husbands, wh o were permitted to continued social interactions outside the home. In Durkheims day most women did not work, they were isolated or restricted to the home, while the man was fee to interact in the outside world. Women were less socially integrated than men, therefore Durkheim believed that marriage did not benefit women as much as men. Critical Thinking In Decision Making Essay Unlike previous strain theories, GST focuses mainly on negative relationships with others, in that a person is not treated in a way they expect or want to be treated. Agnew argues that people are pressured into deviant or criminal acts by negative affective states, especially anger, which results in negative relationships. And that such negative affects leads to pressure which then leads to illegitimate ways to attain a goal. Other strain theories, like Mertions explain strain in a way that relationships with others prevent one from reaching positively valued goals. Other strain theories, like Merton focus mainly on goal blockage, which is most often experienced by the middle and lower class. Agnews GST is written at a social-psychological level, which is different from the social-structural levels of Durkheim and Mertion. The theory is a social-psychological level approach that lets one focus on a persons immediate social environment. The theory is mainly focused toward explaining adolescent criminality or delinquency, because much of the data available for testing it involves surveys of adolescents. Agnew thinks that GST is capable of overcoming empirical and theoretical criticisms associated with prior versions of strain theory. His theory is capable of incorporating variables from other theories like social control and differential association that have been shown in previous studies to influence deviance. He proposes several factors that determine whether a person will cope with strain in a criminal or conforming manner, including temperament, intelligence, interpersonal skills, self-efficacy, association with criminal peers, and conventional social support. The abo ve factors that are studied in other theories, and he uses them to help improve strain theory. Timothy Brezina (1996) article, Adapting to Strain, shows that strain is positively associated with the experience of several negative emotions, such as anger, resentment, and depression, and that delinquency reduces the impact of strain on those emotions. Brezina shows that delinquency is coping behavior or adaptive behavior to help adolescents to minimize the negative emotional affects of strain. The problem with the study was that the cross-sectional nature of the analyses makes it impossible to confirm the causal order implied by the hypotheses. Therefore, the cross-sectional results that support GST need to be verified with longitudinal data, which the Youth in Transition Study cannot do to test the various hypotheses. Paternoster and Mazerolle (1994) article found partial support for general strain theory. It was consistent with Agnew and Whites (1992) work, finding that negative relationships with adults, dissatisfaction with friends and school, and the experience of stressfu l events, such as family breakup or unemployment were positively related to delinquency. But they found no evidence that a broader exposure to negative stimuli causing strain was not effected by the duration of stressful events, which means that how long stressful events occur had no impact on delinquency as Agnew had argued. Contrary to Agnews expectations they also found no support that impediments to delinquent or non-delinquent strategies interact with strain, meaning that coping strategies had no effect on strain. Paternoster and Mazerolle (1994) says that general strain was positively related to subsequent delinquency regardless of level of delinquent peers, delinquent disposition, moral beliefs, self-efficacy, and conventional social support networks. They admit that other strategies to cope with strain were not discussed, such as school activities, athletics, or escapism through drug use. They was also unable to test Agnews key variable anger. In The conditional effects of stress on delinquency and drug use, Hoffman and Su (1997) found that stressful life events among female and male adolescents are similarly associated with delinquency and drug use, which shows that one key concept of Agnews GST crosses demographic lines defined by gender. They were not able to show that female interpersonal and male individualistic development models differences could predict delinquency drug use. They say that males and females may not experience different levels of strain, but that they may react to stress with different responses, such as anger for males, and depression for females. They do find that similar causal processes by males and females links stress to delinquency and drug use, but the results need to be confirmed with data from a probability sample (Hoffman and Su, 1997). The main problem with General Strain Theory is that no current data sets allow for the full testing of the above hypothesis or of all of the GST as a whole. Researchers need to collect comprehensive data on most of the measures of GST to test the importance of the theory. Future longitudinal studies should explore the causal relationship among strain, social control, differential association, and other theories to see if one or more of the theories affects the others theories. For example associations with delinquent peers (differential association), could cause negative relations and emotions to others (general strain theory), because they are labeled as delinquent (labeling theory), and therefore have limited opportunities and a reduction in positive proactive social bonds with the rest of society (social control), which limits non-delinquent coping strategies and increases the likelihood of deviance. Negative relations have a substantial effect on deviance, even when controlling for social control and differential association measures. In order to determine if strain caused delinquency, one would have to know if such things as association with deviant peers wasnt the real cause of delinquency.If a adolescent was associated with a deviant group or individual (differential association), that negative relationships could teach or promote deviance (learning theory), that could create the stigma of being deviant (labeling theory), or reduce social bonds with positive relationships, such as family, school, and church (social control theory), which leads to an increased likelihood of deviant behavior. This basically means that other theories may be the cause of deviance that leads to strain, or some of them may work together to increase the likelihood of strain when certain conditions are favorable for deviance. It could be said then that negative associations, the things learned from those negative relations, the stigma attached and the limiting of opportunities of those within those negative relations, the weakening of positive social bonds associated with those in negative relations, may all increase the likelihood that strain due to loss of positive attachments, negative relationships with negative affects, such as anger, and frustration could lead to an increased likelihood of deviance. Strain may then be only one of many factors that acts in collaboration with multiple direct variables to increase the likelihood of deviance and crime. Positive social bonds and the positive labeling, and positive relationships that would result from such proactive empathetic bonds, would reduce the likelihood of strain, and even in cases of strain, would provide a strong support network that could provide positive coping strategies that would result in non-deviant responses to stressful life events. Clearly the majority of articles that I have reviewed leads me to conclude that anomie theory, classic strain theory, and general strain theory all find support with some criticism. The main problem is that certain key variables of the theories have not been studied, and the conceptual framework of other studies has misinterpreted the key concepts of the theory. Some say that most of the research on anomie and then on classical strain failed to falsify the theories because they had not really been tested to prove or disprove key concepts. Clearly further research studies are needed that focus on the key concepts of strain, and better methodological data sets need to be developed to test the new theories of strain as well. Also longitudinal studies should be used to avoid the problem of causal order resulting from cross-sectional studies. The theories may need some modifications in terms of the variables that cause crime, but the theory still shows that it has withstood decades of cr iticism and offers important insights to the causes of crime in society. Williams III and McShane (1999) says that policy implications are easy to draw from anomie and strain theories; putting them into practice is another manner entirely (p.103). Since anomie is a macro-level theory, the proper form of policy would be aimed at modifying the social structure, such as to eliminate the class structures, racism, and prejudice, all of which are factors working to limit the opportunities for reaching goals (Williams and McShane, 1999: 103). Other recommended approaches includes programs to provide increased job opportunities, such as the Depression era work programs, and many government programs created in the 1960s aimed at increasing opportunities for meaningful work to help the poor. Also more educational opportunities would be favored under strain theory. From the perspective of Agnews strain theory, finding ways to decrease negative relationships in families, schools, and neighborh oods, would be a reasonable approach to reduce strain. A final policy approach offered by Ruth Kornhauser (1978) as well as Steve Brown, Fin Esbensen, and Gil Geis (1991) have suggested that a policy implication of anomie theory would be to reduce aspirations that cause strain for those unable to achieve them. One could say that the American Dream is over, but no one would accept a loss of aspirations, and crime is not the worst ill in society. Anomie theory accepts that crime is a normal part of society. The Merton-Durkheim theory of anomie, and related theories of strain and control, continue, to provide important orienting perspectives within criminology, deviance, and the sociology of law (Abrahamson, 1996: 249). REFERENCESAbrahamson, Mark. 1996. Criminology, deviance, law The Legacy of Anomie Theory edited by Freda Adler and William S. Laufer. CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY, Vol.25, No.2, pp.249-250. Agnew, Robert. 1992. Foundations For A General Strain Theory of Crime and Delinquency, CRIMINOLOGY, Vol. 30, pp.47-87. Agnew, Robert; Cullen, Francis T.; Burton Jr., Velmer S.; Evans, T. David; and Dunaway, R. Gregory. 1996. A New Test Of Classical Strain Theory, JUSTICE QUARTERLY, Vol. 13, No. 4, pp.681-701. Agnew, Robert, and White, Helen. 1992. An Empirical Test of General Strain Theory, CRIMINOLOGY, Vol. 30, pp.475-499. Breault, K.D. and Barkey, Karen. 1982. A Comparative Analysis of Durkheims Theory Of Egoisitic Suicide, THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY, Vol. 23, pp.321-331. _______, 1983. Durkheim Scholarship and Suicidology: Different Ways of Doing Research in History of Social Thought and Different Interpretations of Durkheims Suicide, THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY, Vol.24, pp.629-632. Brezina, Timothy. 1996. Adapting To Strain: An Examination Of Delinquent Coping Responses, CRIMINOLOGY, Vol.34, No.1, pp.39-59. Camp, Sarah. Robert K. Mertons Anomie Theory, http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/faculty/greek/courses/merton.htmClinard, M.B. 1968. ANOMIE AND DEVIANT BEHAVIOR. 4th Ed. The Free Press. Durkheim, Emile. 1893. The Division of Labor in Society. New York: The Free Press. ________, 1951. SUICIDE, The Free Press. Farnworth, Margaret and Leiber, Michael J. 1989. Strain Theory Revisted: Economic Goals, Educational Means, and Delinquency, AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW, Vol. 54, pp.263-274Fernquist, Robert M. 1995-96. Elderly Suicide in Western Europe 1975-1989: A Different Approach to Durkheims Theory of Political Integration, OMEGA, Vol.32, No.1, pp.39-48. Hoffman, John P. and Su, Susan S. 1997. The Conditional Effects of Stress on Delinquency and Drug Use: A Strain Theory Assessment of Sex Differences, JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN CRIME AND DELINQUENCY. Vol. 34, pp.46-78. Menard, Scott. 1995. A Developmental Test of Mertonian Anomie Theory, JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN CRIME AND DELINQUENCY, Vol.32, pp.136-174. Morrison, Ken 1995. MARX, DURKHEIM, WEBER: Formations of Modern Social Social Thought. Sage Publications. Paternoster, Raymond and Mazerolle, Paul. 1994. General Strain Theory And Delinquency: A Replication and Extension, JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN CRIME AND DELINQUENCY, Vol. 31, pp. 235-263. Pescosolido, Bernice A. 1990. The Social Context Of Religious Integration and Suicide: Pursuing the Network Explanation. THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY, Vol.31, No. 3, pp. 337-357. Pope, Whitney and Danigelis, Nick. 1981. Sociologys One Law, SOCIAL FORCES Vol. 60, No. 2, pp. 495-516. Reid, S.T. 1979. CRIME AND CRIMINOLOGY. Prentice-Hall. Stack, Steven. 1983. A Comparative Analysis of Durkheims Theory of Egoistic Suicide: A Comment, THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY, Vol. 24, pp.625-628. _________, 1990. The Effect Of Divorce On Suicide In Denmark, 1951-1980. THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 359-370. Travis, Robert. 1990. Halbwachs and Durkheim: A Test Of Two Theories of Suicide, BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY (BJS), Vol. 41, No. 2Van Poppel, Frans, and Day, Lincoln H. 1996. A Test of Durkheims Theory of Suicide Without Committing the Ecological Fallacy, AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW, Vol. 61, No. 3, pp. 500-507. Williams III, Frank P. and McShane, Marilyn D. 1999. CRIMINOLOGY THEORY. 3rd Ed. Prentice Hall. See Chapter 6 on Anomie Theory. (Note: Research Paper Written Dec. 10, 1998 for Graduate Credit at Morehead State Universtiy, by Brent Monroe Pergram, who received a Masters of Arts in General Sociology May 2000)