SOCI-225 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Anomie
15 May 2018
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Class #6 – Ch. 10 – May 9, 2018
First Test Score: 80%
Strain Theory: Putting pressure on an individual, generation, peoples.
Capitalist societies create people who are cutthroat, and A personalities.
Everyone wants a piece of that American Pie American dream, the dead dream.
Anomie and Normlessness:
Emile Durkheim Late ’s to Early ’s : Crime is a normal part of society, but we need to
define the boundaries of acceptable behaviour.
- If the Adult generation is making the norms, and the acceptable behaviour how do we
expect the children to grow up and act better than us?
There must be a balance between functional and dysfunctional aspects of deviance. Excessive crime
and deviance would destroy society, but if there were none, society would be compelled to create
some. → Reflects back onto the concept of Society of Saints
- We think that shaming people is a good way to deter people from doing bad things, but this
isn’t the case because it just makes you hate yourself.
Anomie: The absence of clear societal norms and values. Heterogeneity and increased division of
labor has weakened traditional societal norms. Results in loosened social controls on people,
allowing greater materialism and individualism. When social cohesion breaks down, and when
social isolation is great, society loses its traditional social control mechanisms and eventually
suffers from a high rate of crime resulting in a sense of normlessness.
The Gap Between Aspirations and the Means to Achieve Them:
Robert Merton 3’s: Thought Emile Durkheim was wrong. Linked social structure, and
anomie Durkheim’s Notion – but different because he said crime results in the presence of norms,
not the absence. The normal we know is so skewed and flawed that it’s unattainable
Social Structure: There is a patterned and relatively stable arrangement of roles and statuses
found within societies and social institutions. Points out the way in which societies and institutions
within them, exhibit predictable patterns of organization, activity, and social interactions.
Culturally prescribed Aspirations: Rejection of the notion that aspirations are entirely self-
created; rather they are defined by culture and transmitted by other members of the society. In
theory, crime is a symptom of the gap between culturally prescribed aspirations and the socially
structured means for realizing those aspirations. Too much emphasis on the pursuit of self-
interested goals, and not enough legitimate means to achieve those goals. Society is left normless or
in a state of anomie.
- Society encourages people to want things but makes it difficult for certain groups of people
to get them. They use alternative means for achieving these things becomes a possibility.
Microanomie: Occurs when an individual place’s more value on self-interest than on collective
values. You don’t think about how your actions impact the group. *)t doesn’t always mean that
crime will occur but is more likely when the collective values are weak.
Males more likely to be affected by microanomie than females.
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Document Summary
Strain theory: putting pressure on an individual, generation, peoples. Capitalist societies create people who are cutthroat, and a personalities. (cid:498)everyone wants a piece of that american pie(cid:499) american dream, the dead dream. Emile durkheim (cid:523)late (cid:883)(cid:890)(cid:882)(cid:882)"s to early (cid:883)(cid:891)(cid:882)(cid:882)"s(cid:524) : crime is a normal part of society, but we need to define the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. There must be a balance between functional and dysfunctional aspects of deviance. Excessive crime and deviance would destroy society, but if there were none, society would be compelled to create. We think that shaming people is a good way to deter people from doing bad things, but this some. Reflects back onto the concept of (cid:498)society of saints(cid:499) isn"t the case because it just makes you hate yourself. Anomie: the absence of clear societal norms and values. Heterogeneity and increased division of labor has weakened traditional societal norms. Results in loosened social controls on people, allowing greater materialism and individualism.
