2002/09/01 by J. G. Bernburg, Jón Gunnar Bernburg · 130 citations
Social Sciences · #Anomie #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Crime, Deviance, and Social Control #Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance #Criminology #Deviance (statistics) #Economics #General strain theory #Juvenile delinquency #Law #New institutionalism #Political science #Politics #Positive economics #Social science #Social theory #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1093/bjc/42.4.729
published in The British Journal of Criminology 42(4), 729-742 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2002/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The last decade has seen a revived interest in using anomie theory in crime and deviance research. The present paper contributes to this development by offering an examination of a particular extension of anomie theory, namely, Messner and Rosenfeld's Institutional‐Anomie theory. Explicating Institutional‐Anomie theory relative to the sociologies of Durkheim, Merton and Polanyi, I find that this theory goes beyond Merton by using a strain of thought that is critical of liberal society. By bringing in the notion of the disembedded market economy, a central notion in the institutionalism of Polanyi and Durkheim, this theory links crime, anomie, and contemporary social change. I also discuss some of the limitations of linking crime with societal level processes in a Durkheimian rather than Mertonian manner.