Anomie, Social Change, and Crime Essay

The American society and the other societies throughout the world have undergone drastic changes from the beginning of the 21st century. The various aspects have changed and can be associated with several factors including the economic aspects, political as well as the social factors. With a clear focus on sociological factors, the paper sets to discuss how the two issues, anomie and ethnocentrism have been shaped and affected in the United States since the year 2000.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Anomie is a concept derived from French word to mean normless. The norms and customs in a society tend to change, and the beliefs and practices of a shift in society too. The newer generations let go of the olden ways of life, and they tend to cultivate more unique cultures and ways of life. The unclear state existing makes it confusing for the people of different generations. The breakdown in societal standards and values leads to a state of instability in the society as people tend to develop several defiant behaviors.

Ethnocentrism, on the other hand, refers to the aspect of one judging other people's ethnic group using their ethnicity as a baseline. It is a belief that one's own culture is superior to others. Ethnocentrism comes about as a result of the different ways of living. One gets to understand and familiarise himself/her with culture and consider it normal. Any deviation from the particular culture is therefore regarded as defective and abnormal. This aspect, therefore, makes everyone to be ethnocentric. Today there is also religious ethnocentricity.

Anomie can sociologically be described as the failure of a society to regulate the social injustices which may come as a result of one achieving their desired goals. This aspect highly matches up to America's dream. Regardless of the path taken in reaching the ideal position, America dream does not bother about the immorality that might happen in between. With the emergence of technology, anomie has therefore been a dominating aspect in the United States since the new millennium (Bernburg, 2002). Norms have deteriorated with the emergence of the online culture. People rarely hold face to face discussions as there has been the emergence of social media platforms using the different electronic gadgets.

Globalisation has created the cultural homogeneity observed in the United States of America. Regardless of the racial diversity, there still are forms of ethnocentrism manifesting in different ways in the US. Religious differences make others consider their religion to be more superior, a factor that has led to the rise in terror attacks. It is true that everyone is ethnocentric in one way or the other. We consider our ways of life as the ideal ways as opposed to others. The United States as a superpower has been more ethnocentric regardless of the fact that it has a diversity of races (Campbell & Kean, 2016). The US has always viewed itself to be more superior to the other countries in the world.

Compared to other societies, the US has become more anomic since the beginning of the 21st century. Several cases of different characters have been registered over the past eighteen years. Several factors can be attributed to the deviant behaviors. The fact the technology has come with it the technical know-how of how to do some unpleasant crimes is one of the best explanations for the rise in anomie in the United States in the 21st century. The moral decay and loss of the different values and customs is another factor that has led to the various weird behaviors in the US.

The human being is a social organism, recognizing group association as an essential element (Eitzen, 2016). It, therefore, explains the hostility towards other groups as in ethnocentrism. The United States has diversity in ethnic groups. The ethnic minorities are consequently treated as the outsiders. In the new millennium, there has been a registered decline in ethnocentrism. The rise in multiculturalism has fought for the equality among the different races in the United States. People considered to be from the outside races have been to a greater extent accepted into the broader cultural context (Davenport, 2016). The people from the outer races can now enjoy equal civil rights. The 44th president of the United States of America Barack Obama descended from the minority group that had been looked down upon, a clear indication that the United States has embraced ethnic inclusivity and diversity.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is right to state that anomie and ethnocentrism are two issues that have been in one way or another affected and shaped by the sociological factors from the year 2000.America has been associated with the rise in deviant behaviors associated with anomie over the past eighteen years. Technology as a sociological factor has had a more significant impact on the anomie of the United States. Multiculturalism struggled to create a cultural homogeneity in the states. The effort has however not cleared the cases of ethnocentrism. The occurrence of terror attacks has been observed as a result of the difference in religion and the hatred for one another's religion.

References

Bernburg, J. G. (2002). Anomie, social change, and crime. A theoretical examination of institutionalanomie theory. British Journal of Criminology, 42(4), 729-742.

Campbell, N., & Kean, A. (2016). American cultural studies: an introduction to American culture. Routledge.

Davenport, L. D. (2016). Beyond Black and White: Biracial Attitudes in Contemporary US Politics. American Political Science Review, 110(1), 52-67.

Eitzen, S. (2016). In Conflict and Order: Understanding Society, Books a la Carte Edition. Prentice Hall.