Explanation
Anomie refers to a breakdown or absence of social norms and values that typically guide behavior and maintain social order. In periods of rapid social change, economic upheaval, or institutional failure, individuals may experience disorientation and uncertainty about how to act or achieve socially approved goals.
The concept was first introduced by Émile Durkheim in The Division of Labour in Society (1893), where he described anomie as a condition arising when the regulation of relations between social institutions (e.g., law, economy, labor) fails. He later expanded on the concept in Le Suicide (1897), linking it to moral deregulation and individual despair during times of rapid social change.
Robert K. Merton later reinterpreted anomie through a structural-functionalist lens: in his Strain Theory, anomie arises when there is a disjunction between culturally endorsed goals (such as success or wealth) and the socially approved means to achieve them. This discrepancy leads to adaptations such as innovation (e.g. crime), ritualism, retreatism, or rebellion.
In more recent criminological theory, particularly the Institutional Anomie Theory by Messner and Rosenfeld, anomie is viewed as a systemic feature of societies where economic institutions dominate over social and moral institutions, undermining social cohesion and encouraging criminal behavior.