Social institutions, anomie and violence

Kamali’ilani T. E. Wetherell and Terance D. Miethe

Chapter 23 in Research Handbook on Violent Crime and Society, 2025, pp 380-392 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Crime occurs within the context of society. Society is composed of social institutions that establish and maintain order, determining which actions are considered criminal. Among the various theories that link social institutions and crime, this chapter focuses on Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT) proposed by Messner and Rosenfeld in 1994. IAT examines the key institutions impacting crime (i.e., economy, family, education and politics). How these four factors have been tested to explain crime rates for different violent and non-violent offenses, along with the results of empirical evaluations, are presented. The chapter also identifies the strengths and limitations of the theoretical approach.

Keywords: Institutional anomie; Social institutions; Crime; Violence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035317851
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