The Legacy of Anomie Theory

by Adler,Freda

• ISBN13: 9780765806628
• ISBN10: 0765806622
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1999-11-30
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This sixth volume Advances in Criminological Theory is testimony to a resurgent interest in anomie-strain theory, which began in the mid-1980s and continues unabated into the 1990s. Contributors focus on the new body of empirical research and theorizing that has been added to the anomie tradition that extends from Durkheim to Merton. The first section is a major, 75-page statement by Robert K. Merton, examining the development of the anomie-and-opportunity-structure paradigm and its significance to criminology.The Legacy of Anomie Theory assesses the theory's continuing usefulness, explains the relevance of Merton's concept of goals/means disparity as a psychological mechanism in the explanation of delinquency, and compares strain theory with social control theory. A macrosociological theoretical formulation is used to explain the association between societal development and crime rates. In other chapters, anomie is used to explain white-collar crime and to explore the symbiotic relationship between Chinese gangs and adult criminal organizations within the cultural, economic, and political context of the American-Chinese community.

Table of Contents

Editor's Note	ix
Part One Merton Reflects on Anomie Theory
Opportunity Structure: The Emergence, Diffusion, and Differentiation of a Sociological Concept, 1930s--1950s	3	(78)
Robert K. Merton
Part Two The Legacy of Anomie Theory
Merton versus Hirschi: Who Is Faithful to Durkheim's Heritage?	81	(10)
Thomas J. Bernard
Continuities in the Anomie Tradition	91	(22)
Nikos Passas
The Contribution of Social-Psychological Strain Theory to the Explanation of Crime and Delinquency	113	(26)
Robert Agnew
Salvaging Structure through Strain: A Theoretical and Empirical Critique	139	(20)
Gary F. Jensen
Crime and the American Dream: An Institutional Analysis	159	(24)
Richard Rosenfeld
Steven F. Messner
Ethics and Crime in Business Firms: Organizational Culture and the Impact of Anomie	183	(24)
Deborah Vidaver Cohen
White-Collar Crime and Anomie	207	(20)
Elin Waring
David Weisburd
Ellen Chayet
Social Order and Gang Formation in Chinatown	227	(20)
Ko-lin Chin
Jeffrey Fagan
Cloward and Ohlin's Strain Theory Reexamined: An Elaborated Theoretical Model	247	(24)
John P. Hoffmann
Timothy Ireland
Synnomie to Anomie: A Macrosociological Formulation	271	(16)
Freda Adler
Part Three General Articles
Kristian Georgevich Rakovsky: A Criminological Interlude	287	(16)
Sir Leon Radzinowicz
Contemporary Criminological Theory and Historical Data: The Sex Ratio of London Crime	303	(26)
David F. Greenberg
Social Reaction and Secondary Deviance in Culture and Society: The United States and Japan	329	(20)
S. George Vincentnathan
Discrepancies in the Control of Elite and Lower-Status Deviance: A Theory of Multiple Control	349	(18)
Bonnie Berry
In Defense of Comparative Criminology: A Critique of General Theory and the Rational Man	367	(62)
Michael J. Lynch
W. Byron Groves
Comments
Comments on Volume 3	395	(4)
C. Ray Jeffery
Comments on Volume 1 and Volume 2	399	(30)
Gilbert Geis
Contributors	429	(2)
Name Index	431	(4)
Subject Index	435