Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT)
Definition
Messner and Rosenfeld's macro-level extension of Merton (1994). IAT argues that societies in which the economy dominates all other institutions produce high crime rates because families, schools, and civic bodies are too subordinated to market logic to socialise individuals effectively away from crime.
- Field
- Criminology, macro-level strain theory
- Authors
- Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld
- Published
- 1994
- Builds on
- Merton's anomie theory
Common questions
How does IAT differ from Merton's original anomie theory?+
Merton explained individual-level strain from a gap between goals and means, while IAT operates at the societal level, arguing that an economy-dominated institutional structure weakens the family, school, and community controls that would otherwise restrain crime.
What institutional imbalance does IAT identify as the root cause of high crime rates?+
IAT points to societies where economic institutions are allowed to override non-economic ones, so family and community norms lose their capacity to devalue illegitimate means of achieving success, leaving weaker informal social control overall.
Related terms
- Anomie
- A condition in which social norms weaken or become contradictory, leaving individuals without clear moral guidance. First used by Durkheim to describe...
- General Strain Theory (GST)
- Robert Agnew's 1992 reformulation of strain theory. GST identifies three sources of strain: failure to achieve positively valued goals, removal of positively...
- Innovation (Merton)
- One of Merton's five adaptations: accepting the culturally approved goal (financial success) while rejecting legitimate means and substituting illegitimate ones. Merton identified...
- Retreatism
- One of Merton's five adaptations: rejecting both the culturally approved goal and the legitimate means, withdrawing from the competitive social order altogether....
- Strain
- In criminological theory, the pressure or frustration produced when individuals cannot achieve goals through legitimate means, or when they experience loss or...