A Return to Durkheim: A Macro-Level Approach to Understanding Variation in Victimization Across Countries

• In Event: Macro-level Studies of Strain and Crime

Abstract

Throughout Durkheim’s work he emphasizes the importance of society and his main argument is that anomie is a systemic condition that occurs when society cannot regulate the behavior of its members; the lack of societal regulation, in turn, results in a state of normlessness (i.e., anomie) and the high potential for deviant behavior to occur. It is possible that the inconsistent findings of researchers utilizing Srole’s (1956) anomie scale could be a result of the empirical tests employing a micro-level approach instead of a macro-level approach. We argue that researchers should return to Durkheim’s (1933; 1951) theoretical framework and incorporate macro-level empirical tests of anomie and additional correlates. Thus, the purpose of the current study is to answer the question-does the anomic condition of society predict deviant behavior? Utilizing data from the fifth round (2010) of the European Social Survey (ESS), victimization, serving as a proxy to measure the extent of crime that occurs within each country, will be evaluated. Preliminary results from a multi-level logistic regression model suggest that countries that experience higher levels of anomie are more likely to have higher rates of deviance, controlling for individual-level perceptions of anomie and structural-level correlates.

Authors

• Michelle N. Harris, Georgia State University

• Brent Teasdale, Georgia State University

• Mindy S. Bradley, University of Arkansas