Anomie

Explanation

Anomie is a central concept in sociology and criminology describing situations in which social norms lose their capacity to regulate behavior and provide moral orientation. The term does not simply mean “lawlessness,” but rather a weakening of shared rules, expectations, and forms of social integration.

The concept was first introduced by Émile Durkheim in The Division of Labour in Society (1893), where he described anomie as a condition emerging when relations between social institutions become insufficiently regulated. Durkheim later expanded the concept in Suicide (1897), arguing that periods of rapid economic or social change can weaken moral regulation and produce feelings of instability, frustration, and meaninglessness.

Robert K. Merton later reinterpreted anomie within his Strain Theory. According to Merton, anomie results from a disjunction between culturally promoted goals — such as wealth or success — and unequal access to legitimate means of achieving them. This tension may encourage deviant adaptations such as innovation, retreatism, or rebellion.

More recent approaches, especially Institutional Anomie Theory developed by Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld, describe anomie as a structural feature of societies in which economic values dominate social institutions and weaken social cohesion.