The Legacy of Anomie Theory

Freda Adler is professor of criminal justice at Rutgers University. She is the author of Sisters in Crime and other major works in criminology., William S. Laufer is assistant professor in the Department of Legal Studies at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has written extensively on criminal behavior and corporate criminal responsibility., Robert K. Merton is University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University and Foundation Scholar, Russell Sage Foundation.

Editor’s Note, Part One Merton Reflects on Anomie Theory, Opportunity Structure: The Emergence, Diffusion, and Differentiation of a Sociological Concept, 1930s-1950s, Part Two The Legacy of Anomie Theory, 1. Merton versus Hirschi: Who Is Faithful to Durkheim’s Heritage?, 2. Continuities in the Anomie Tradition, 3. The Contribution of Social-Psychological Strain Theory to the Explanation of Crime and Delinquency, 4. Salvaging Structure through Strain: A Theoretical and Empirical Critique, 5. Crime and the American Dream: An Institutional Analysis, 6. Ethics and Crime in Business Firms: Organizational Culture and the Impact of Anomie, 7. White-Collar Crime and Anomie, 8. Social Order and Gang Formation in Chinatown, 9. Cloward and Ohlin’s Strain Theory Reexamined: An Elaborated Theoretical Model, 10. Synnomie to Anomie: A Macrosociological Formulation, Part Three General Articles, 11. Kristian Georgevich Rakovsky: A Criminological Interlude, 12. Contemporary Criminological Theory and Historical Data: The Sex Ratio of London Crime, 13. Social Reaction and Secondary Deviance in Culture and Society: The United States and Japan, 14. Discrepancies in the Control of Elite and Lower-Status Deviance: A Theory of Multiple Control, 15. In Defense of Comparative Criminology: A Critique of General Theory and the Rational Man, Comments, Comments on Volume 3, Comments on Volume 1 and Volume 2, Contributors, Name Index, Subject Index