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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether victims of financial crimes are also affected by anomie. Fraud from supposed financial advisors leaves many victims feeling uncertain of their financial future and betrayed by people they trusted. This is felt even more when victims are betrayed by people in their own community. Previous research (see Hövermann et al. 2015a, 2015b, 2016, 2018) has found that individuals susceptible to the capitalistic values of the USA and other Western nations are more likely to cheat (Muftic, 2006), engage in rule-breaking (Zito, 2018) and believe in egoistic individuality (Hövermann et al. 2015a). This belief in these values could also increase the chance of victimization. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used an experimental survey to assess whether institutional anomie theory (IAT) can also affect victimization at the individual level. Findings: The authors find support for Messner and Rosenfeld's (2001) IAT. An interaction was present, which revealed that IAT is more predictive when individuals are high in financial need. When individuals are desperate, they will find whatever means possible to meet the expectations of the American Dream, even if it involves investing their life savings with a potential fraudster. Originality/value: This paper examines IAT as it relates to victim behavior. Further, this paper links the techniques of offenders using shared social status (i.e. affinity) with criminological theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like any disaster, COVID-19 laid waste to infrastructure and the ability for a community to do community. But, unlike a tornado or nuclear meltdown, COVID-19 laid waste to social infrastructure in unique ways that only a disease can do. On the one hand, a pandemic brings biological dangers that, in turn, make all individuals—loved ones, too—into potential threats of biological contamination. On the other hand, the efforts to contain disease present social dangers, as isolation and distancing threatens mundane and spectacular ritualized encounters and mask-wearing heighten our awareness of the biological risk. By exploring the link between disasters and disease, this paper leverages the lens of contamination, beginning first with the barriers it presents to making and remaking the self in everyday life. Constraints on ritualized encounters, both in terms of delimiting face-to-face interaction and in determining that some spaces have contaminative risks, reduces collective life to imagined communities or shifts to digitally mediated spaces. The former intensifies the sense of anomie people feel as their social world appears as though it were disintegrating while the latter presents severe neurobiological challenges to reproducing what face-to-face interaction habitually generates. Finally, these micro/meso-level processes are contextualized by considering how institutions, particularly polity but also science, manage collective risk and how their efficacy may either contribute to the erosion of solidarity or provide a sense of support in the face of anomic terror. Using the US to illustrate these processes, we are able to show how an inefficacious state response weakens the already tenuous connective tissue that holds a diffuse and diverse population together, while also exposing and intensifying existing political, economic, and cultural fissures, thereby further eroding existing solidarity and the capacity to rebuild post-pandemic cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pericles' Funeral Oration is a testimony to the justice inherent in democratic systems. However, we are told by Thucydides that not long after the Oration the Athenians blame the downfall of the city on Pericles and consider sentencing him to death. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, on its surface, presents a narrative of tradition and superstition. But is Coleridge's message obscured by the discordance of the poem's varying perspectives? The present paper draws on the similarity between the anomie which Athens descended in to and the confusion Coleridge creates through the varying perspectives of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. If we situate Coleridge's Mariner within the context of the author's frustration surrounding the French Revolution, this similarity appears much less coincidental. From Thucydides onward, then, we have reason to believe that democracies exhibit a tension between common-striving and anomie. Processes of meaning-making take on utmost importance. The literary figures of Thucydides' Pericles and Coleridge's Mariner offer us two symbols of the precariousness of democracy. How and what we choose to make of these symbols is up to us; this paper offers the possibility that the albatross around our neck may be our inability to understand our fellow citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the analysis of the discourse in major Israeli ultra-Orthodox newspapers during the first year of COVID-19. Following Durkheim, we argue that the pandemic not only brought about a health emergency, but also a state of anomie. Analyzing both Hamodia and Yated Neeman—both major news outlets of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel—we show how in a time of anomie when the sanctity of life (pikuach nefesh) conflicted with the sanctity of the community, the latter prevailed. Thus, this study unveils a different set of moral priorities than the one commonly referred to in Israeli bioethical discussions in the pre-COVID-19 era. We also found that the Durkheimian "totem" or "God" metaphors—a symbol of society itself—are highly relevant in analyzing how leaders of the Haredi community in Israel tried to keep their congregation together. This was expressed in the two heavily censored newspapers we analyzed: they placed communal living above the sanctity of individual life in a way that exposed how the cohesion of the group and the community itself were sanctified. At the same time, what was identified as the real virus was in fact secularism and not COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The convenience of big data processing technology has played a great advantage in many scenarios, and its deep learning can effectively mine different types of data in data sets. Applying this method to mining psychological prediction data set of legal anomie behavior can effectively prevent the occurrence of illegal behavior. The effective analysis of its psychological characteristics and the changes of psychological emotions will have hidden dangers, so it is necessary to extract this kind of data in such cases. Therefore, the forest algorithm under deep learning uses weight factors, simple sampling, and other ideas to build the intervention mechanism, which will improve psychological quality to prevent anomie. The experimental results of this paper are as follows: (1) In the case of testing psychological fluctuation by three algorithms, the forest algorithm calculates the psychological change area steadily, with the increase of the number of samples. (2) In the data sample extraction of different dimensions, the test value increases with the increase of dimensions, and it is stable at 12 dimensions. (3) Preventive intervention is extremely important to construct the mechanism before the anomie behavior occurs, and the longest running time of the roll neural network is as much as 950 s. (4) The data mining technology for constructing the intervention mechanism accounts for 15.4% of counseling, which also shows that the auxiliary measures for preventing behavior are particularly important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze which concept describes the central theme in Max Weber's works — the rationalization processes — best: disenchantment, alienation, or anomie. I first describe how Weber's rationalization processes were understood in the past. Most scholars have interpreted these processes as disenchantment, although some have seen a stronger affinity to the Marxist concept of alienation. Since the majority have regarded disenchantment as the central theme of Weber's legacy, I discuss Weber's rare statements about the disenchantment process, most of which appear in a speech that was published later as Science as a Vocation. I then introduce definitions of key concepts (Hegelian alienation, Marxist alienation, Durkheimian anomie, and de-magification) to provide a more varied and precise vocabulary. This will aid in describing at least two different rationalization processes that can be derived from Weber's theoretical framework (Economy and Society) and his historical studies. The first, in the economic and political sphere, can be characterized as Marxist alienation, whereas the second, in the religious sphere, can be interpreted as de-magification and Hegelian alienation. It is possible to regard Weber's statement in Science as a Vocation as a third rationalization process, in the sphere of knowledge production, which would suggest the concepts of de-magification and anomie. However, such a reading would seem to contradict the greater body of Weber's methodological writings. Finally, it is concluded that the term disenchantment is not a very useful concept for portraying Weber's intended view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Text emotion analysis is an effective way for analyzing the emotion of the subjects' anomie behaviors. This paper proposes a text emotion analysis framework (called BCDF) based on word embedding and splicing. Bi-direction Convolutional Word Embedding Classification Framework (BCDF) can express the word vector in the text and embed the part of speech tagging information as a feature of sentence representation. In addition, an emotional parallel learning mechanism is proposed, which uses the temporal information of the parallel structure calculated by Bi-LSTM to update the storage information through the gating mechanism. The convolutional layer can better extract certain components of sentences (such as adjectives, adverbs, nouns, etc.), which play a more significant role in the expression of emotion. To take advantage of convolution, a Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory (ConvLSTM) network is designed to further improve the classification results. Experimental results show that compared with traditional LSTM model, the proposed text emotion analysis model has increased 3.3 and 10.9% F1 score on psychological and news text datasets, respectively. The proposed CBDM model based on Bi-LSTM and ConvLSTM has great value in practical applications of anomie behavior analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper at hand aims to address a research gap by examining the spatial impact of economic and non-economic institutions on regional variation in the support for the German populist far-right party 'Alternative for Germany (AfD)'. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on institutional anomie theory, the study explores the relationship between economic dominance—economic inequality and economic strength—and regional AfD vote share, as well as the role of non-economic institutions in shaping support for the party. Using various regional indicators, the study assesses the strength of different institutions and their impact on the AfD's electoral results in the year 2021 across 401 German districts (NUTS 3-level). The results point to significant differences between eastern and western Germany in the analysis of regional populist voting patterns. Economic dominance emerges as a stronger predictor of the AfD's vote share in eastern regions. However, the findings on the protective effect of strong non-economic institutions against AfD voting are ambiguous and partly contrary to theoretical expectations. Overall, the study's findings show that the newly introduced indicators deduced from institutional anomie theory contribute to the existing literature to help better understand regional variances in AfD support. Furthermore, the study contributes to the existing literature on the rise of contemporary radical right movements by employing Karl Polanyi's framework of 'disembedded' markets. In doing so, it sheds light on the complex interplay between social change, anomic tendencies, and the growth of radical right movements in capitalist societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on incels has largely focused on economic theory, misogyny that incels display in online forums, or their potential threat of violence. This paper proposes to look at the incel phenomenon through the lens of sociological theory, specifically through the lens of social death which the researchers are calling "perceived social death." This research focuses on incels who have adopted a "black pill" identity and express a form of perceived social death in which black-pilled incels believe themselves to be involuntarily disengaged from society to live as socially dead individuals. Black pillers are often described as a more nihilistic incel identity but such a description does not capture the complexity and nuanced differences between different forms of incels. The researchers looked for themes of social death through online postings in known incel forums to gain a better understanding of the social forces that push these individuals to adopt the label of "incel." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Annals of Criminology is the property of Cambridge University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Smartphones have become a ubiquitous part of everyday life, and attachment to these devices is a felt reality for many Americans. This paper describes the link between smartphone attachment and the pursuit of meaning and purpose in life. Analyses reveal meaning-seeking as a positive correlate of smartphone attachment. However, while interaction effects suggest that meaning-seeking through heavy social media and Internet use decreases the odds of smartphone attachment, meaning-seeking is strongly related to attachment at lower levels of daily media use. Also, having a satisfying life purpose decreases the odds of smartphone attachment, though this protective effect is not as strong as meaning-seeking in the final models. We conclude that smartphone attachment, within a context of latent anomie, could be anomigenic, inadvertently exacerbating feelings of despair while simultaneously promising to resolve them. Findings provide a sociological link between smartphone attachment and the negative psychosocial outcomes described in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to mental health studies of children and youth's suicide and suicide attempts. Inspired by early sociological concepts such as Durkheim's contribution to understanding suicide through social anomy, we ran statistical analysis of worldwide suicide rates and tested for correlation between suicide rates amongst children and youth and "Big Data" on social, educational, economic and environmental factors around the world. Amongst them we considered 88 variables including Human Development Index (HDI) and its indicators, rates of religious observance and denomination, and even the hours of sunlight and the average temperature in each country. The statistical section of the paper is preceded by the results of analysis from the anonymised mental health records of adolescents with suicidal and self-harming tendencies. The data came from a Polish psychotherapist and was accompanied by in-depth analysis of contributing factors from purposely selected, attempted suicide cases, in order to enrich the statistical perspective with biological, individual, environmental and situational factors. Finally, we identify trigger factors and protective indicators, derived from both the statistical and the empirical part of our study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the number of never‐married and not‐cohabiting singles, or "effective singles," was first observed in Japan and Southern Europe. In Northern and Western Europe and North America, increased singlehood was due largely to increased cohabitation. Existing sociological theories of singlehood, however, are formulated based on the observations of the latter, and fall short in explaining why more individuals remain unpartnered. The wealth of data from singlehood research in Japan suggest that many singles desire marriage yet drift into singlehood, facing structural, cultural barriers in a rapidly changing social context. The impact of gender inequality is salient, but existing theories focus on women's advancement and egalitarianism. This paper proposes an alternative theoretical framework for explaining causes of singlehood, incorporating sociological and feminist perspectives and Emile Durkheim's theory of anomie, and calls for shifting the center to observations from non‐Western societies for better theorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sexuality, Gender & Policy Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

After the Second World War the Polish-Slovak borderland became a zone of serious tensions. Particularly controversial is the activity of the Polish partisan group "Błyskawica", led by Józef Kuraś "Ogień". The soldiers are responsible for takings of private property and acts of violence carried out in villages in South Poland that were inhabited mostly by Slovaks. This paper - based mainly on the query at the Archives of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance - aims to present the scale and circumstances of those activities. The work takes wider historical context into account and uses selected anthropological and sociological theories. In this perspective, it seems justified to explain the analyzed events through the mechanism of revenge, widespread in the post-war period of anomie and crisis. Sources indicate that the Polish partisans' actions from the years 1946-1947 were not attempts to pacify the Slovak separatists (although some authors claim so) but rather repressions for the earlier actions of members of that nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how unethical behavior in the workplace occurs when management places inordinately strong emphasis on goal attainment without a corresponding emphasis on following legitimate procedures. Robert Merton's theory of social structure and anomie provides a foundation to discuss this argument. Key factors affecting ethical climates in work organizations are also addressed. Based on this analysis, the paper proposes strategies for developing and changing aspects of organizational culture to reduce anomie, thereby creating work climates which discourage unethical practices and provide employees with mechanisms to resolve ethical conflicts in a constructive way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper, based on the analysis of ethnographic material, the author explains the emergence of ordinary affects during the breakup of Yugoslavia. He shows that the ordinary affects were unfolding amid social anomie created by the collapse of the Yugoslav state and the processes of ethnicization on the subnational level. One of the striking features of the processes of ethnicization was targeted violence against civilians or democratization of violence on a subnational level. To help understand the emergence of affective afflictions, the author supplements theories of cultural trauma and ethnicization with the concepts of situation and crisis embedded in the ordinary. Furthermore, he argues that this small theoretical supplement can help understand the persistence and unusually high presence of war rhetoric in some post-Yugoslav states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventionalism once seemed an attractive way to justify the viability of the positivistic social thesis. Subsequent criticism, however, has significantly lessened its attractiveness. This paper attempts to revive jurisprudential interest in conventionalism by claiming that positivists would profit more from the conventionalism of Ruth G. Millikan than that of David Lewis. Three arguments are proffered to support this contention. First, Millikan's conventionalism is not vulnerable to the major criticism leveled at conventionalism, viz its compliance-dependence (i.e., the main reason to follow a convention is that other social actors do so), as this is not its defining feature. Second, Millikanian conventionalism retains conventionalism's ability to explain how law emerges from social practices while avoiding the main disadvantage of Lewisian conventionalism, viz its inability to explain the normativity and contestability of law. Third, Millikan's conventionalism can more effectively repel Dworkin's and Greenberg's assaults on legal positivism than its Lewisian counterpart. To the memory of Maurice O'Brien [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reveals what foundations of the value paradigm of modern society are the most appropriate to contemporary cultural and historical realities on the basis of the study of interrelation between cultural phenomena and historical consciousness. The study employs a significant range of methodological and theoretical approaches of philosophy, cultural and social studies. The article argues that three different approaches to interrelation of culture and historical consciousness are correlated with three approaches to the establishment of the value paradigm of modern society. The author considers that the most suitable axiological basis for the establishment of the value paradigm in modern social and cultural situation is the principle of individual autonomy that will help to strike a balance of values of personalistic egoism, national and corporate altruism, and also humanistic universalism. The historical consciousness developed within this value paradigm makes it possible to overcome both an objectivist interpretation of historical path typical for classical science and a subjectivist one common to post-modern historical philosophy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociological concepts of social disorganization, disintegration, social involution and social anomie offer relevant explanations of many developments in Serbia in the 1990s. However, if one relies only on such concepts, one will not get a comprehensive understanding of the extremely destructive developments that occurred simultaneous in practically all spheres of society (economy, politics, culture, and spiritual), and the long-lasting negative social developments that occurred even after the regime change in Serbia at the end of 2000. The author presents a more complex sociological concept, the concept of destroyed society, to describe 'things' that happen to society when its basic structure as an ordered social community is being destroyed. The essential features of societal destruction include a radical, long-lasting disintegration of societal structure, the social system and societal culture, generating the destruction of society's identity and vitality; the 'empting' of key social institutions (institutions of state, of the economy, policy, culture..), when institutions no longer carry out their institutionally-specific activities and degenerate into empty social forms; the prevalence of quasi and para-phenomena, which are outside regular social control and replace normal forms of activities established by institutions; the annulment and making of senseless basic social roles (occupations, professions, even roles in inter-personal relations); de facto making the system of social rules 'out of order', disrespect for the legal regulation of social development, an absence of morality; the life 'behind the (public) scene' becomes the real life of people, so that lies tend to dominate social communications; an accumulation of 'unfinished happenings', of activities which started but did not end, leading to the destruction of a sensible future; mass forgetting of ethics and morality which leads to widespread tolerance of inhuman doings; massive impoverishment, regression to low-level practices, even among members of society who usually would not be faced with poverty. Specific manifestations of the complete destruction of Serbian society in the 1990s are illustrated in the paper using empirically based findings2. Some comments on the possible reconstitution of destroyed Serbian society since the regime change are presented in the last part of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we develop an explanation for the health crisis in the former Soviet Union based on social theory. The collapse of the former Soviet Union was marked by a dramatic rise in mortality and morbidity. Epidemiological and sociological explanations to date have focused on explaining the raise in mortality implicating either unhealthy lifestyles, which included heavy smoking, drinking, lack of exercise and poor diets, or individual stress as the primary causes, while acknowledging that the decline of the public health services and the rise in poverty are also likely contributory causes. However, the broader sociological implications of these issues have not been adequately theorised. In this paper we develop and test four explanations of the decline in health in the former in the Soviet Union in the 1990s: that it was due to poverty; that it was due to unhealthy lifestyles; and that it was due to alienation from the social and political system; that it is due to a form of anomie that we term ‘transition stress’. We link this to the ruptures in the social, economic and political system, associated with a loss of social cohesion, which have had individual health consequences. We do so utilizing data from a survey carried out in eight post-Soviet countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Individual and/or co-offenders fraudulent activities can have a devastating effect on a company's reputation and credibility. Enron, Xerox, WorldCom, HIH Insurance and One.Tel are examples where stakeholders incurred substantial financial losses as a result of fraud and led to a loss of confidence in corporate dealings by the public in general. There are numerous theoretical approaches that attempt to explain how and why fraudulent acts occur, drawing on the fields of sociology, organisational, management and economic literature, but there is limited empirical evidence published in accounting literature. This qualitative inductive study analyses perceptions and experiences of forensic accountants to gain insights into individual fraud and co-offending in order to determine whether the conceptual framework developed from literature accurately depicts the causes of fraud committed by individuals and groups in the twenty-first century. Findings from the study both support and extend the conceptual framework, demonstrating that strain and anomie can result in fraud, that deviant sub-groups recruit and coerce members by providing relief from strain, and that inadequate corporate governance mechanisms both contribute to fraud occurring, and provide the opportunity for fraudulent activities to be executed and often remain undetected. Additional factors emerging from this study (the 'technoconomy', addiction and IT measures) were also identified as contributors to fraud, particularly relevant to the twenty-first century, and consequently, a refined conceptual framework is presented in the discussion and conclusion to the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Drawing on Durkheim’s historical theorization of suicide, we extend his concept of anomic suicide, which is suicide due to a lack of social regulation, to introduce the concept of institutional suicide. We define institutional suicide as suicide due to the absence or decline of institutional policies, practices, and discourses for prevention. In this study, we explore the mechanisms for institutional suicides based on suicide notes Turkey, in a context without institutional responsibilization for prevention. Turkey provides a significant context for studying institutional suicides as policies, practices, and discourses for suicide prevention have been declining for some decades. Methods: Drawing on publically available suicide notes and narratives in Turkish media outlets, we analyze 17 suicide notes and responses from their institutions of work and friends, family, and colleagues. Findings and Discussion: We identify two mechanisms that lead to institutional suicides: (1) dehumanization due to lack of recognition and (2) misrecognition through a devaluation of potential. We extend the theory of anomie to institutional settings and offer social policy suggestions to improve institutional responses based on co-design based on suicide notes to prevent institutional suicides and call for institutional responsibilization for preventing work-related suicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often asserted that the values and attitudes of Homo Sovieticus, marked in the rising "popularity" of Stalin, live on in contemporary Russia, acting as a negative factor in social and political development. This article critiques the argument that attitudes to Stalin reflect unreformed Soviet values and explain Russia's authoritarian regression and failed modernization. Our critique of this legacy argument has three parts. First, after examining the problematic elements of the Levada Center approach, we offer alternative explanations for understanding quantitative data on Stalin and the repressions. Second, we examine interview data showing that, for those with a pro-Stalin position, "defending Stalin" is only a small part of a broader worldview that is not obviously part of a "Soviet legacy." Third, we consider survey data from the trudnaia-pamiat' project and find common reluctance to discuss much of the Stalinist past, which we argue represents an agonistic stance. Thus, we interpret attitudes to Stalin within a broader context of complex social and cultural transformation where the anomie of the 1990s has been replaced with dynamics toward a more positive identity construct. On the one hand, the antagonistic mode of memory is visible in statist and patriotic discourses, which do not seriously revolve around Stalin but do resist strong criticism of him. On the other hand, we find many more in Russia avoid the Stalin question and adopt an agonistic mode, avoiding conflict through a "de-politicized" version of history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cyberpunk genre dominates much of our popular culture, from how we think of cyber- and white-collar crime, to our understanding of how technology influences the criminal justice system. This article explores the common criminological themes prevalent within the recent video game Cyberpunk 2077 as an example of popular criminology. Specifically, it explores the game's story and environment by examining key characters' responses to structural inequalities through an anomie theory lens. Key characters and groups within the game exemplify Merton's (1938) different responses to rampant poverty and socioeconomic inequality. This is then extended to the "cyberpsycho" problem within the game, incorporating General Strain Theory to discuss why specific individuals develop the problem within Cyberpunk 2077. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robert Merton's (1957) theories of anomie and strain are among the most widely examined theories of criminality. Messner and Rosenfeld's (1994) theory of institutional anomie built on Merton's conception of anomie, delineating how specific institutions lead to conditions of anomie and criminality. Cloward and Ohlin's (1961) theory of differential opportunity built upon Merton's strain theory, underscoring the fact that those involved in illegitimate means of opportunity require a set of learned skills as do those involved in legitimate means. In this tradition, the present paper further expands Merton's theories of anomie and strain, suggesting that Merton's categories of conformist and innovator are not mutually exclusive. In fact, some individuals combine both legitimate and illegitimate means of opportunity in pursuit of the American Dream. The Maximizer, the authors suggest, merges elements of both the conformist and the innovator (i.e. legitimate and illegitimate means). The present paper explores the justification for merging legitimate and illegitimate means of opportunity in pursuit of the American Dream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to mental health studies of children and youth’s suicide and suicide attempts. Inspired by early sociological concepts such as Durkheim’s contribution to understanding suicide through social anomy, we ran statistical analysis of worldwide suicide rates and tested for correlation between suicide rates amongst children and youth and “Big Data” on social, educational, economic and environmental factors around the world. Amongst them we considered 88 variables including Human Development Index (HDI) and its indicators, rates of religious observance and denomination, and even the hours of sunlight and the average temperature in each country. The statistical section of the paper is preceded by the results of analysis from the anonymised mental health records of adolescents with suicidal and self-harming tendencies. The data came from a Polish psychotherapist and was accompanied by in-depth analysis of contributing factors from purposely selected, attempted suicide cases, in order to enrich the statistical perspective with biological, individual, environmental and situational factors. Finally, we identify trigger factors and protective indicators, derived from both the statistical and the empirical part of our study.

In Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie, Max Weber discussed anomie potential of some non-Western religious doctrines. This paper provides an analysis of Weber's writings on anomie and attempts to show relevance of Weber's work to contemporary anomie research. First, I locate Weber's treatment of anomie within his discussion of great world religions, highlighting its significance in a cross-cultural context. Second, I compare Wetter's notion of anomie with current evaluations of anomie and disc a typology of usages of the term, Finally, I explore the suggested usefulness of Weber's work on anomie for contemporary purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the causes of the recent rise in extreme right and racist violence in Western Europe. In the first part, the available data on extreme right and racist violence in eight Western European countries Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway are discussed. Contrary to the image presented in the media, Germany is no 'Sonderfall' as regards the level of violence. Germany belongs to the countries with the highest levels of violence, but Switzerland and Great Britain are roughly comparable in this regard. The second part of the paper attempts to explain cross-national differences by applying two theoretical perspectives from the social movement literature. The grievance model, which sees the causes of violence in grievances related to the main target groups of the extreme right (foreigners and asylum seekers) and more general feelings of anomie among the socially marginal, finds little support in the data. The opportunity model, which emphasizes the role of political elites in shaping mobilization opportunities for social movements, finds support in an analysis of the relation between the development of extreme right and racist violence and the political debate around asylum legislation in Germany. Moreover, cross-national comparison shows that the amount of violence also depends on the prior strength of extreme right and racist parties. Contrary to common wisdom, but in line with the expectations derived from the opportunity model, the level of violence tends to be low where extreme right and racist parties are strong and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethical climates remain one of the most popular ways to assess the ethical orientations of companies. There has been a plethora of studies examining the relationship between ethical climates and critical outcomes, which was triggered by Victor and Cullen's seminal work published 35 years ago. After such a long period of strong research activity in this topic area, it is time to take stock of the accumulated empirical evidence. This meta-analytic review incorporates the considerations of alternative conceptualizations of ethical climates and integrates an international comparative perspective on the consequences of ethical climates. Given the state of the field, it is imperative to assess the tenability of the various relationships of ethical climate types across national contexts. As such, we first provide an update on how ethical climates are related to key organizational outcomes and assess how country-level factors affect the consequences of ethical climates. We present our findings along theoretical, empirical, and methodological issues, discuss the implications of our findings for extant research and provide suggestions for future research for each of the three avenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anomic situations in societies are often brought about by social changes. Social anomie is a phenomenon that emerges when traditional norms are not sufficient enough to adequately respond to the new emerging situations, although this does not necessarily imply a state of normlessness in a society. These emerging new situations might result from society's internal development processes or can be externally imposed. The process of globalisation has brought many major changes in the world political and social-cultural systems. The hitherto unprecedented flow of capital in the name of globalisation has led to a more stratified world than it was before. This process, mainly driven by economic rationalities, has led to social, cultural, environmental and political instabilities in many societies around the world. In a world that lacks a real-world social order, this article reflects on how globalisation impacts on social systems and proposes a spaceship ethic value orientation in charting out ways towards reaching the new world order, where every society can be an indispensable part of the world nomos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The presented article is an attempt to compare methods of resolving conflicts in contemporary realities in Polish organizations based on their empirical justification in a time perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis is based on found empirical research put in perspective. Findings: Homo sociologicus (collective actor - e.g., large-industry workers) began to give way to individual-achievement logic and changes in the labor code. An orientation toward mediation as a means of resolving organizational conflicts is beginning to dominate. Research limitations/implications: A survival strategy in the organization becomes the phenomenon of organizational withdrawal, which corresponds to the perception of work in the hierarchy of values. The expectation of a kind of "task instruction" allows to avoid conflicts and at the same time opens a new field of research on the shape and nature of organizational culture - the dominance of collectivist or rather individualistic values. Practical implications: Changing employee behavior from a collective to an individualistic orientation makes it possible to identify the sources of employee anomie. Social implications: The analysis and conclusions raise the importance of the social dimension of the organization's functioning and the impact of the external environment on its functioning. Originality/value: The author emphasizes the importance of shifting attitudes toward the workplace in the formation of organizational culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses systematically different concepts of anomie as an explanation of Group-focused Enmity (GFE) against selected groups in society. The GFE research programme has demonstrated the utility of applying the concept of ‘anomia’ – an individual reaction to disruptions in the normative order – to explain prejudices against vulnerable groups. This paper extends the GFE research programme by incorporating insights from Institutional Anomie Theory, a theoretical perspective originally introduced in the criminological literature. Drawing upon this, it develops a theoretical model that links perceptions of weakened non-economic institutions with prejudices against groups that are readily seen as being ‘unprofitable’. These perceptions are theorized to affect prejudices against such groups via a pathway of ‘marketized’ attitudes and orientations, net of any influence of anomia. This paper’s theoretical model was assessed with data from a representative survey of the German population (n = 840). The results of Structural Equation Modelling support most of the main hypotheses, revealing the additional value for prejudice research of measuring the individual experience of anomie not only as anomia but also with respect to processes of marketization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents in an original way the socio-political relationship between anomie, domination and servitude voluntary in the contractual type societies. The author brings in actuality an oldest theme, the one regarding the condition and the place of the individual in modern society that lies primarily under the sign of freedom. Between will, obedience and freedom, a relationship of mutual interdependence is born. The will determines the setting in motion of the real and empirical state of freedom. The anomie is a state but also a social fact, which appears against the background of the absence of norms recognized as the real will of majority, the loss of authority of the law, the disappearance or overturning of values in a society. The anomic state is just one from the pathological forms of social division of labor, specific to contract type modern societies, felt intensely in the transitional periods, as it is the case of Romanian society, in the post-communist period. There are presented, for the first time, the specific forms of servitude. The domination is given by the asymmetric ratio of force and coercion between dominant and dominated. The voluntary servitude can be considered an essential indicator for the state of health of the social system, of the domination and submission level. This determinant of the social will is a social objective and measurable fact that allows the scientific research and methodological analysis of this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the second half of the eleventh century, in the Christian West, the theological doctrine of St. Anslem sought to re-establish the place of reason within the domain of faith. Anselm arrived at a possible re-enactment of this relation under the condition regulated by the principle fides quaerens intellectum - faith seeking reason. This paper is an attempt to explore not only the possible implications of this principle but to understand the internal logic which constitutes it and holds it together. It is the contention of this paper that this regulative principle (fides quaerens intellectum) could complete such a process of logically constituting itself through a violent forcing of thought which gathered and maintained within itself an anomy. This internal paradox produced a logical excess which at one hand threatened constantly to expose a crisis, inhabiting the very centre of the theological system it sought to build, but on the other hand it also became the very ground on which such a system constituted itself. To that extent this paper would try to understand the metaphysical forcing of this moment of crisis back into the theological system it sought to express and normalize at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Utilizing a sample of 300 homeless street youths, the research examines the individual-level sub-model of Baumer's interpretation of Merton's anomie theory. The paper explores the role the interaction between monetary goals and weak commitment to legitimate means plays in the generation of instrumental crime and the manner in which this interaction is itself moderated by blocked opportunities, monetary dissatisfaction, social modeling, cultural support, and the perceived risk of punishment. The findings reveal that a weak commitment to legitimate means, but not monetary goals, has a lower order impact on the willingness to commit instrumental crime. These two variables, however, do not interact to predict intentions to offend. Instead the findings reveal that blocked opportunities and higher levels of monetary dissatisfaction moderate the relationship between the monetary goals and weak commitment to legitimate means interaction and the willingness to offend. Findings are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing crime rate in a rapidly developing country like Malaysia has caused its citizens to feel unsafe. The Malaysian Government has to increase the police force and review its training programmes. This paper argues that even with the best trained police force, the crime rate will remain high. This is due to the highly capitalistic and materialistic culture of the Malaysian society that has led to the occurrence of elements of Robert Merton's (1938) theory of Anomie—excessive emphasis on monetary goals regardless of the moral status of the means used to achieve them. Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld's (2001) Institutional-Anomie theory states that anomic pressure arises when there is an overemphasis on the market ethic that undermines the regulatory power of social norms. This results in individuals feeling an overriding pressure to achieve and at the same time being confronted with weak normative restraints on legitimate means to achieve. The two theories suggest that certain cultural conditions, in combination with certain structural conditions, generate anomie and a high crime rate. At present, Malaysia's capitalistic and materialistic culture has generated cultural and structural conditions that are highly conducive to a high crime rate. Increasing the police force and improving policing will not be enough to reduce the high crime rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that anomie theories are aspects of the more comprehensive, but neglected theory of alienation. The dominant dimension of anomie theories (particularly Durkheim’s version) is normlessness, which is only one of five dimensions of alienation theory. A practical implication of this insight is that anomie theory relies heavily on a Durkheimian focus on the role of normlessness in guiding criminal justice policy, while the other dimensions of alienation theory-powerlessness, meaninglessness, isolation and self-estrangement—have been deemphasized or ignored. By including all dimensions of the alienation concept, an integrated theory of crime and more effective crime control strategies can be formulated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that people tend to perceive the groups to which they belong (e.g., national groups) as temporally persistent. In this paper we argue that enhanced perceptions of collective continuity lead to lower levels of anomy and misfit, and to higher levels of social well-being (SWB). Furthermore, we argue that the effects of perceived collective continuity (PCC) on SWB are mediated by collective self-esteem (CSE). Finally, we contend that PCC has positive effects on perceived group entitativity (PGE), which in turn has a positive influence on CSE. This model is tested by means of a cross-sectional study using a sample of Spanish nationals (N = 145) drawn from the general public. Results confirm that the data fit the model well. These findings are in line with research demonstrating that a sense of personal continuity through time is related with better mental health and personal well-being. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of nationalism on the mental condition of individuals has not attracted much attention of scholars dealing with nationalism. It is in disproportion with the relevance of the subject. Liah Greenfeld is one of very few who did research on whether and how nationalism, that is, the anomic modern culture, affects those who live in modern times. This text is a critical analysis of her paper "Nationalism and the Mind" published in Nations and Nationalism (July 2005) in which she presented her ideas about the impact of anomie as a key feature of modern culture on the mental condition of individuals. It has been shown that Greenfeld misread the link between anomie and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses psychological malaise and feelings of helplessness at work and at home considering the impacts on organizations and ethics The paper reports on research undertaken in three organizations seeking to explore anomie at work. This research explores whether a distinction in the levels of anomie between people’s perception of the work and non-work contexts exists in three organizations, that is whether people are more likely to feel more hopeless and helpless in their work or non-work life. It also looks at whether people in different organizations have significantly different levels of anomie. A significant difference in the non-work anomie between organizations, but no significant difference in work anomie between organizations, was found. In the three organizations researched, the anomie score in the non-work context is lower than in the work context, indicating that respondents perceive the work context as more anomic. The work anomie for the total sample was found to be significantly higher that the non-work anomie. The implications for ethical behavior at work and business ethics are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expanding use of resettlement as a tool for addressing environmental and poverty-related concerns in China calls for further research into its impacts on local populations. Our knowledge of the effects of such resettlement is very limited, particularly in relation to its social impacts. This paper examines the impoverishment risk of social disarticulation as it is experienced by resettlers in an Inner Mongolian environmental resettlement village—Wan Sheng village. We argue that social disarticulation as a risk of resettlement is by no means an inevitable downward spiral towards social oblivion and anomie. Resettlers, in this case at least, have recreated a living, functioning community that provides many aspects of support for its inhabitants. This is in spite of unfavourable construction and increased economic deprivation. It is the adaptive abilities of these resettlers that come to the fore in Wan Sheng, suggesting aspects of rearticulation and cohesion, and not simply disarticulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Durkheim's classic study Suicide still has many surprises and mysteries over 100 years after it was written: why was the order of analysis reversed in this study? Why did Durkheim have recourse to theory? Why did the study require dramatizations of its 'individual forms'? This paper tries to answer these questions with reference to Durkheim's failure to find a link between the way individual suicides are committed and social causation. This simple and unexpected finding suggested to Durkheim that analysis of suicide rates was more complex than he had anticipated. Because he could not establish a continuous causal chain via the means employed to commit suicide, he looked elsewhere and claimed to have established it in the emotional character of the act itself. This led him to a highly speculative construction of a set of ideal typical scenographies of suicide to save his conception of expressive causation, rather than restructure his theory of suicide to meet the complexity he had found, and particularly his conclusion that 'the form of death chosen is ... something entirely foreign to the very nature of suicide'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robert Merton presented two, not always clearly differentiated theories in his seminal explorations on the social-structure-and-anomie paradigm: a strain theory and an anomie theory. A one-sided focus on Merton's strain theory in the secondary literature has unnecessarily restricted the power and effectiveness of Merton's anomie theory. For although structural strain is one way to explain why deviance occurs in the context of anomie, it is not the only way. We contend that scholars who are critical of strain theory should not automatically discard Merton's anomie theory, because the perspective of anomie is compatible with several other theories of crime and delinquency. Offering examples of previous integration efforts, we maintain that Merton's theoretical model can benefit from the input of other theories of crime and deviance as much as these other theoretical perspectives can fine-tune their models and explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]