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Lindsey Dissertation FINAL 8_17.pdf (1.36 MB)

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Crime and Punishment: An Empirical Test of Institutional-Anomie Theory

Myers, Lindsey P., Myers
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1503049000260017

Abstract Details

2017, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Sociology.
Abstract This dissertation analyzes the social, political, and economic determinants of crime and the relative use of two institutions of social control—prisons and psychiatric hospitals—in order to better understand the degree to which these related social phenomena can be explained by variation in institutional structure and cultural elements. I apply institutional-anomie theory (IAT), developed by Messner and Rosenfeld (1994), to examine U.S rates of crime, imprisonment, and psychiatric inpatients. I first explore the theoretical foundations of institutional-anomie theory (IAT), before elaborating on the current iteration of the theory. The existing IAT literature only examines crime as an outcome, despite the theorists’ stated desire for an application to punishment. I draw on the social control literature that uses an institutional perspective to extend IAT. One important offshoot of this synthesis is the identification of “neoliberalism” instead of the American Dream as the anomic ideological element of IAT. Neoliberal economic philosophy proclaims the ascendancy of the market (Harvey 2005). Beyond the economic theory, however, lie assumptions about the nature of social problems like poverty and crime. The widespread success of this philosophy is associated with weakened social institutions, an eroding social safety net, and a general application of the market model to social relations (Sutton 2013). Three empirical chapters empirically test whether this ideology and the policies associated with it in conjunction with an institutional structure dominated by the economy influence deviant behavior and the social reactions to it. The first empirical chapter follows extant empirical work using IAT to analyze variation in crime rates in the U.S. states from 1960-2010. While several other studies have conducted similar cross-sectional analyses on the U.S. states, my panel data provides a more complete view of American crime and its determinants, as well as increased statistical power. My findings here echo prior research, as I find that economic dominance and neoliberalism do influence crime rates. The second empirical chapter argues that these same institutional and ideological factors that increase crime also influence the use of imprisonment as a form of social control (over and above their effect on crime). Although I do find significant effects of ideology and institutional structure, my results deviate from my hypothesis. This finding points to an important debate over the values and policies associated with neoliberalism. To answer further questions about how institutional and ideological characteristics influence coercive institutions, the final empirical chapter examines the determinants of mental hospitalization. This chapter examines whether neoliberalism and economic dominance influenced the use of psychiatric hospitals, another institution of social control. Additionally, I assess whether these factors influenced the relationship between these two institutions of social control. I find that imprisonments do affect the rate of psychiatric inpatients. However, I do not find evidence to support a claim that the institutional structure and neoliberalism influence the use of psychiatric hospitals. I conclude the dissertation by providing a summary of my research and findings. I also discuss the wider implications of my study, as well as its limitations. Finally, I explore directions for future work on synthesizing IAT and theories of social control.
Ryan King (Advisor)
Paul Bellair (Committee Member)
Hui Zheng (Committee Member)
178 p.
Sociology
Institutional Anomie theory; sociology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Myers, Myers, L. P. (2017). Crime and Punishment: An Empirical Test of Institutional-Anomie Theory [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1503049000260017

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Myers, Myers, Lindsey. Crime and Punishment: An Empirical Test of Institutional-Anomie Theory. 2017. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1503049000260017.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Myers, Myers, Lindsey. "Crime and Punishment: An Empirical Test of Institutional-Anomie Theory." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1503049000260017

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1503049000260017
122
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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.