Institutional anomie theory: an empirical test

Institutional anomie theory:
an empirical test


Siegmunt O.

Institute of Criminal Sciences, University of Hamburg, Germany, research assistant (part-time), State Office of Criminal Investigation of Lower Saxony, Germany olga.siegmunt@unihamburg.de

Wetzels P.

Institute of Criminal Sciences, University of Hamburg, Germany peter.wetzels@unihamburg.de

ID of the Article: 5194


For citation:

Siegmunt O., Wetzels P. Institutional anomie theory: an empirical test . Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2015. No 4. P. 78-87




Abstract

Institutional anomie theory (IAT) is a theoretical basis to explain differences in the crime rates and also differences in the crime structure in the situation of dominance of some social institutions like economy, policy or civil institutions like family, school or peers. Assumptions of IAT to be tested at macro, micro, and with a multi level model should not be based on statistics only, but also using self-reported data. The school students are most suitable for such studies because of their accessibility. To test IAT is possible in two ways. 1. With countries that have a similar institutional structure but different tempo of social change (e.g. East and West Germany). 2. With countries having similar rapid social change but different institutional structure (e.g. East Germany and Russia). In the article a concept of empirical testing of institutional anomie theory is presented.


Keywords
institutional anomie theory; empirical research; youth crime; Russia; Germany
Content No 4, 2015