Anomie

Social Deviance and Social Work

Cansancio, Shane Marie S. BSSW-2
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Striving is considered
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ANOMIE

in societies or individuals, a
condition of instability resulting
from a breakdown of standards,
norms and values or from a lack
of purpose or ideals.
• The term was introduced by the French
sociologist Émile Durkheim in his study of suicide.

He believes…
breakdown of the
Anomic social standards
necessary for
regulating behaviour.
How does ANOMIE Occur?
• Anomie occurs during and follows periods
of drastic and rapid change to the societal
structures.
• In Durkheim's view, a transition phase
wherein the values and norms common
during one period are no longer valid, but
new ones have not yet evolved to take
their place.
MANIFESTATION OF ANOMIE
common values and common meanings are
no longer understood or accepted, and new
values and meanings have not developed.
Members of society manifest psychological
states characterized by a sense of futility, lack
of purpose, and emotional emptiness and
despair.
Striving is considered useless, because there
is no accepted definition of what is desirable.
 American sociologist Robert K. Merton
studied the causes of anomie, or
normlessness, finding it severest in people
who lack an acceptable means of achieving
their personal goals.

Goals Ends and

Means
Legitimate creates a
Vs. stress that
Illegitimate leads to a
means breakdown
Merton’s continuum reaction
to anomie
1. SOCIAL INNOVATION
2. RITUALISM
3. RETREATISM
4. REBELLION
Delinquency, crime, and suicide are
often reactions to anomie.
Anomie and Deviance
• No “guidance” for the individual, no
limitations. Society lacks the regulatory
constraints necessary to control the
behavior of its members.
• Without boundaries, limits, norms,
individual life (self and others) becomes
meaningless. Behavior becomes
uncontrollable  DEVIANCE.
Important Concepts
• A Feeling of Disconnection
People who lived during periods of anomie typically feel
disconnected from their society because they no longer see the
norms and values that they hold dear reflected in society itself.
Anomie can foster the feeling that one lacks purpose, engender
hopelessness, and encourage deviance and crime.
• Anomic Suicide
He identified anomic suicide as a form of taking one's life that is
motivated by the experience of anomie. The sociological implication
is that strong social ties help people and groups survive periods of
change and tumult in society.
• Breakdown of Ties That Bind People Together
He saw it as a breakdown of the ties that bind people together to
make a functional society, a state of social derangement. Periods of
anomie are unstable, chaotic, and often rife with conflict because
the social force of the norms and values that otherwise provide
stability is weakened or missing.
Merton's Theory of Anomie
and Deviance
• Building on Durkheim's theory that anomie is a social
condition in which people's norms and values no longer sync
with those of society, Merton created the structural strain
theory, which explains how anomie lead to deviance and
crime.
Legitimate Vs.
Illegitimate Illegitimate Means
Means
seek out alternative means that may simply
break from the norm, or may violate norms
and laws

So for Merton, deviance, and crime are, in large part, a result of anomie, a
state of social disorder.
QRSI?