Abstract

Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT) proposes high violent crime rates are due partially to imbalances in societal institutions, specifically the dominance of the economy over non-economic institutions. Tests of IAT have focused largely on the absolute strength of the economy, which ignores the core argument of institutional imbalance and the possibility that institutional preferences may not be additive and limited. If one institution is strong, it does not mean other institutions are weak. We believe rigorous tests of IAT must include its central concept of relative institutional imbalance. Utilizing the World Values Survey for a sample of 74 nations, we created institutional imbalance ratios for each pairing of the economy with family, education, religion, and polity. We employed multiple regression to determine if our measures of institutional preferences were associated with homicide victimization rates. Results indicated only the Economic:Education institutional imbalance ratio was positively and significantly associated with national homicide rates.

摘要

制度失范理论（IAT）提出，高暴力犯罪率部分归因于社会制度的失衡，特别是经济对非经济制度的主导地位。IAT的检验主要集中在经济的绝对实力上，忽略了制度失衡的核心论点以及制度偏好可能不是累加性和有限性的可能性。如果一个机构强大，并不意味着其他机构弱。我们认为，对 IAT 的严格测试必须包括其相对制度失衡的核心概念。我们利用世界价值观调查对 74 个国家进行抽样调查，为经济与家庭、教育、宗教和政体的每对组合创建了制度失衡比率。我们采用多元回归来确定我们对制度偏好的衡量是否与凶杀受害率相关。结果表明，只有经济：教育制度失衡比率与全国凶杀率呈显着正相关。