Institutional anomie theory (IAT) explains the variation in crime at the societal level by the combination of cultural features, and the institutional balance of power between Economy and non-economic institutions. IAT has had empirical support at the national level as well as within country variation to explain both street and white-collar crimes. This study sought to explore embezzlement trends within IAT framework via the economic, family, political and educational institutions in Japan (1985-2005), a country that emulates some elements of American capitalism yet has strong collective cultural norms that is known for exerting strong informal social control. By converting the original rate data into z-scores the trends were standardized on the same scale, so variations in economic and structural conditions over time on Japanese embezzlement were easier to observe. The implications for IAT were discussed.

Despite the increase in terrorism research post September 11, 2001, little is known about domestic terrorism though it occurs at overwhelmingly higher rates as compared to transnational terrorism. Although the use of criminological theory and methods to study terrorism has increased recently, there are relatively few terrorism studies within the criminological literature. Drawing upon extant criminological theories of violence among countries, this study uses the recently created Global Terrorism Database to examine the distribution and correlates of domestic terrorism among 72 developed nations between 1970 and 1997. This study examined the following questions. First, do prior established predictors of criminal violence (i.e., economy, inequality, social welfare, political orientation, ethnic fractionalization, population, and pre-existing violence) also predict domestic terrorism at the country level? Second, is the relationship between these macro-structural and cultural variables in the same direction as found in the previously published literature? Using a series of contemporaneous cross-sectional analyses and lagged cross-sectional analysis, the results from this study indicate that there is considerable similarity between the correlates of cross-national homicide and correlates of domestic terrorism. There was considerable evidence for the relationship between population size and overall levels of domestic terrorism. This relationship was robust across short time intervals (1970s), the full time span (1970-1997), as well as in the long and short term lagged analyses (1970-1990 predictors of domestic terrorism in 1991-1997 and 1991-1994 predictors on 1995-1997 domestic terrorism). On the contrary I did not find evidence that large youth populations are significantly related to higher levels of domestic terrorism. Income inequality (GINI) also emerged as a significant correlate of domestic terrorism in the long and short term contemporaneous analyses. Those countries that had higher overall levels of income inequality for the entire time span also had higher levels of domestic terrorism, compared to those countries with low levels of income inequality. Contrary to theoretical expectations yet supportive of prior criminological research, this study found that stronger democracies actually have more domestic terrorism. In particular, those countries with more restrictions placed on executive decision-making power, tend to have more domestic terrorism events, compared to those countries with less restrictive executive decision-making processes. This study concludes with a discussion of the results within the larger criminological literature as well as future avenues of research.

The United States has unusually high rates of violence among developed nations, including the victimization of and perpetration by youth. Using Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT) as the theoretical framework, this study analyzes the relationships between social institutions and crime and the interactive relationships among the institutions in a sample of Virginia localities. Multivariate analyses are conducted to produce additive and multiplicative models, and simple slope analyses are conducted to clarify interaction/moderation effects. Findings yield mixed support for IAT. Localities with higher levels of monthly welfare per recipient (a measure of polity) have lower juvenile violent crime arrest rates, and welfare moderates the relationship between income inequality and juvenile violent crime arrests. Controlling for all variables, no support was found for the direct effects of any other institution on juvenile violent crime arrests. Policy recommendations include maintenance of welfare programs and improvement of work participation supplementary programs.

Every day, individuals commit acts which are considered immoral, unethical, even criminal, often to gain material advantage. Many people consider cheating on taxes, cheating on tests, claiming false benefits, or avoiding transport fare to be wrong, but they do them anyway. While some of these acts may not be formally illegal, they are, at best, considered morally dubious and is labeled “everyday crime.” Anomie theory holds that individuals make decisions based on socialized values, which separately may be contradictory but together, balances each other out, producing behavior considered “normal” by society. When one holds an imbalanced set of values, decisions made on that set may produce deviant behavior, such as everyday crime. RD theory holds that individuals who perceive their own deprivation, relative to someone else, will feel frustration and injustice, and may attempt to ameliorate that feeling with deviant behavior. Data from the 2006 World Values Survey were analyzed using logistic regression, testing both constructs concurrently. An individual was 1.55 times more likely to justify everyday crime for each calculated unit of anomie; and 1.10 times more likely for each calculated unit of RD. It was concluded from this study that anomie and relative deprivation were both associated with the tendency towards everyday crime.

Robert Mertons anomiteori har historiskt fått skarp kritik på grund av sitt svaga empiriska stöd och sina teoretiska antaganden. Vissa har dock menat att det svaga empiriska stödet beror på felaktiga operationaliseringar av Mertons teori. Den här studien syftar således till att studera operationaliseringar i tidigare forskning av Robert Mertons ursprungliga anomiteori som den presenterades år 1938 i Social Structure and Anomie. Först genomförs en noggrann genomgång och analys av artikeln Social Structure and Anomie och den teori som där presenteras. Genom en systematisk litteraturöversikt har sedan 13 artiklar som operationaliserat Mertons teori valts ut och sedan analyserats utifrån de centrala delarna av Robert Mertons paradigm. Resultaten visar att kulturellt definierade intressen nästan enbart har operationaliserats som akademiska och/eller ekonomiska mål och att de accepterade medlen operationaliserats i enlighet med de kulturellt definierade intressena. Vidare konstateras att varken anpassningsformer eller kulturperspektivet har någon framträdande plats i operationaliseringarna. / Historically, Robert Merton’s theory of anomie has suffered from harsh criticism on the basis of its weak empirical support and theoretical assumptions. Although, some have made the claim that the failing support is because of inadequate operationalization of Merton’s theory. The purpose of this study is therefore to analyze the operationalization in previous research of Robert Merton’s original theory of anomie, as it was presented in 1938 in Social Structure and Anomie. Firstly, a thorough examination and analysis is conducted on the article Social Structure and Anomie and the theory therein. Secondly, through a systematic review 13 articles that operationalize Merton’s theory were selected and then analyzed based on the core parts of Robert Merton’s paradigm. Results indicate that the culturally defined goals almost exclusively are operationalized as academic and/or economic goals and that the institutionalized means are operationalized in accord with the culturally defined goals. Furthermore, it is found that neither adaptations nor the cultural perspective have any significant place within operationalization.

Pour respecter une certaine manière de parler, qui n'est pas propre à notre discipline, nous avons évoqué dans le titre de notre mémoire "un" concept d'anomie, comme en physique par exemple on parle "du" concept de force. Toutefois, comme c'est le cas pour ce dernier concept, qui lui non plus ne renvoie pas directement à un observable, le concept d'anomie change de signification avec la théorie explicative dans laquelle il prend place et qui seule lui confère un sens précis, à tel point qu'il faudrait peut-être parler "des" concepts successifs d'anomie apparus en sociologie, plutôt que d' "un" concept et de son histoire. Dans ce mémoire nous procédons à une enquête épistémologique sur les divers concepts d'anomie construits par trois théoriciens à qui on doit associer l'usage du terme : Guyau, Durkheim, Merton.

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Le droit ne se réduit pas aux règles. Que cet ancien adage paraisse aujourd’hui sibyllin montre la difficulté des juristes face à ce qu’il faut appeler l’anomie. Le pouvoir confié à une autorité de surmonter cette absence de règles provoque l’émergence de l’arbitraire en droit. Depuis l’Antiquité, ses fonctions répressives et administratives témoignent de son utilité indéfectible. Sous l’emprise du déterminisme juridique intégral d’un Dieu (VIIIe-XIIIe) ou d’un Législateur (XVIIIe-XXe), l’arbitraire se réduit à l’interprétation des normes omniprésentes. Il peut également former une voie de droit extraordinaire en complément des règles fixes (XIIIe-XVIIIe). Son apogée comme principe général de gouvernement voire de répression n’est atteinte qu’à l’occasion du profond bouleversement moderne (XVIe). À travers ces variations, trois formes de légalité se côtoient et proposent les conditions du choix d’un arbitraire légal. / Law is not reducible to rules. The fact that this ancient adage now sounds intriguing points out jurist’s difficulties to face what must be called anomie. Arbitrariness refers to the power given to one authority to overcome this absence of rules. Since Antiquity, repressive and administrative functions shows its irreducible utility. Under the empire of an integral determinism of God (VIIIe-XIIIe) or a Legislator (XVIIIe-XXe), arbitrariness is confined to interprete omnipresent norms. It can also provide extraordinary means in complement of fixed rules (XIIIe-XVIIIe). Its apogee as general principle of government or punishment is only reached by the modern upheaval (XVIe). Through its variations, three forms of legality coexists and reveals the conditions surrounding the choice of a legal arbitrariness.

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L’apparition de l’internet et sa propagation sur 38,8% de la population mondiale entre 1995 et 2013 indiquent que les nouveaux médias ont causé des changements significatifs dans les sociétés à travers le monde. Les caractéristiques du nouveau medium, telles que l’interactivité et la possibilité de son utilisation de n’importe quel lieu, à tout moment, pointent la possibilité élevée de développement de l’addiction par ses utilisateurs. Les données indiquent la hausse de l’utilisation générale des médias au cours des soixante dernières années. D’autre part, pendant cette même période a été notée la baisse de la participation politique, ensemble avec le déclin de la socialisation et de la participation active dans des organisations professionnelles. Les questions de recherche sont réparties en de grandes questions, relatives à l’examen sur les personnes qui sont plus sujettes à devenir dépendantes aux medias, à découvrir si les personnes sont plus dépendantes aux medias anciens ou nouveaux et à clarifier quelles sont les conséquences de la dépendance aux médias, y compris son impact sur la participation politique. Les ouvrages des penseurs classiques ont été examinés pour servir de fondement aux hypothèses, portant une attention particulière à l’anomie, l’aliénation et la société de masse. L’examen des ouvrages de la littérature contemporaine a été focalisé sur les notions de la structure sociale moderne, de l’avancée technologique, de la mondialisation, de la déception par la démocratie, du nouveau paysage médiatique et du narcissisme. L’hypothèse principale, résultat de l’examen des perspectives théoriques différentes, indique que les changements sociaux, telle que l’apparition de la production de masse et l’expansion des medias de masse, réduisent la possibilité d’expression et augmentent la manipulation de l’intérêt du profit. Cela peut être à l’origine des frustrations qui engendrent des sortes différentes de dépendance, qui remplacent les buts non réalisés, causant ainsi la baisse de la participation politique. Cette baisse permet aux “mauvaises personnes”, qui exercent mal les fonctions représentatives, de devenir des acteurs sociaux, ce qui peut, potentiellement, causer davantage de frustrations. La recherche a été conduite à l’aide d’un sondage représentatif, mis en œuvre en Serbie en 2011. Cette étude établit une nouvelle méthodologie de mesure de la dépendance par le biais d’un seul sondage; pour la première fois, elle distingue des personnes dépendantes aux médias par le niveau de leur dépendance et la longueur d’utilisation des médias comme indices objectifs, tandis qu’elle comprend aussi des indices subjectifs..... / Appearance of internet and its spread to 38.8% of world population from 1995 to 2013 indicate that new media bring significant changes to societies around the world. Features of new media such as interactivity and possibility to use it from anywhere anytime indicate internet may be highly addictive. Data point to increases in overall media use over the last 60 years. On the other hand, decreases in political participation are registered together with decline in socializing and active membership in professional organizations for the same period. Research questions are divided into large ones relating to examination of what kind of people are more susceptible to becoming media addicts, finding out if people are more addicted to old than to new media and inquiring into consequences of media addiction including its effects to political participation. Classical thinkers have been examined as basis for hypotheses with special attention directed towards anomie, alienation and mass society. Nowadays literature has been examined as well, focusing on modern social structure, advance of technology, globalization, disappointment with democracy, new media landscape and narcissism. Main presumption coming from examination of different theoretical perspectives is that social changes such as appearance of mass production and expansion of mass media decreased possibilities for expression and increased manipulation of profit interest. This may be causing appearance of frustrations leading towards different kinds of addictions as substitutions for unrealized goals, thus causing decrease in political participation. This decrease makes it possible for “wrong people” to become social agents as they perform representative functions in poor manner, which potentially causes more frustration.Research was conducted through nationally representative survey in Serbia during 2011. This study establishes new methodology to measure addiction to all media through a single survey; it divides media addicts according to level of their addiction and uses length of media use as objective indicator, for the first time, while it also includes subjective indicators.