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78723_10Law_and_Order.pdf THE HAMLY N

LECTURE

S

Thirty-sevent

h serie s La w an d Orde r Ral f Dahrendor f

K.B.E.

, F.B.A .

STEVEN

S

Law and Order

b y Ral f Dahrendor f

K.B.E.

, F.B.A .

Professor

of Social Science in the University of Constance; formerly Director of the London School of Economics I n thi s book , base d o n hi s 198
5 Hamly n Lectures , Professo

rRalf Dahrendorf considers the fundamental questions posedfor the social order of free countries by the decline in respectfor the law. Taking as his point of departure the terrors of ourstreets and the riots in our football grounds, ProfessorDahrendorf discusses the implication for social order andliberty of such issues as unemployment, the cracks in the partysystem and the growing disorientation of the young.

Ther e ar e fou r majo r theme s i n th e book - • Th e Roa d t o Anomia - crim e statistic s ar e bu t th e mos tdramatic symptoms of a loosening of social ties and norms. • Seekin g Rousseau , Findin g Hobbes - a widesprea d drea

mof goodness has resulted in the dismantling of some of theinstitutions designed to protect us from badness.

• Th e Struggl e fo r th e Socia l Contract - underlyin g socia lchanges have led from the class struggle to conflicts aboutthe boundaries of society. • Societ y an d Liberty - mos t reaction s t o th e ne w conditio ninvolve threats to liberty - we need to reassert the linksbetween law, order and liberty.

Professo

r Dahrendor f ha s ha d a mos t distinguishe d career , bot h i n hi s nativ e German y an d i n th e Unite d Kingdom . I n Law and

Order he offers a lively and stimulating analysis of atopic of vital importance in the life of every citizen.

Published

under the auspices of THE HAMLYN TRUSTISBN 0420 472401 Also available in paperback

STEVEN

S

THE HAMLYN LECTURES

THIRTY-SEVENT

H SERIE S LA W AN D ORDE R AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALANDThe Law Book Company Ltd.Sydney: Melbourne: Perth CANAD A Th e Carswel l Compan y Ltd .Agincourt, Ontario INDI A N . M. Tripathi Private Ltd.Bombay and

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Westvie

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LAW AND ORDER

b y RAL F DAHRENDORF , K.B.E. , F.B.A .

Professor

of Social Science in theUniversity of Constance, formerly Director of the London School of Economics

Published

under the auspices of TH E HAMLY N TRUS T LONDO N

STEVEN

S & SON S 198
5

Published in 1985

b y Steven s & Son s Ltd. , 1 1 Ne w Fette r Lane , Londo n

Computerse

t b y Promenad e Graphic s Ltd. , Cheltenha m an d printe d i n Grea t Britai n b y Pag e Bros . (Norwich ) Ltd .

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h Librar y Cataloguin g i n Publicatio n Dat a

Dahrendorf

, Ral f La w an d order. - (Hamly n lectures ) 1 . Great Britain - Social conditions - 1945- I . Titl e II . Serie s

941.085'

8 HN385. 5 ISB N 0-420-47240- 1 ISB N 0-420-47250- 9 Pb k Al l right s reserved . N o par t o f thi s publicatio n ma y b e produce d o r transmitte d i n an y for m o r b y an y means , electronic , mechanical , photocopying , recordin g o r otherwise , o r store d i n an y retrieva l syste m o f an y natur e withou t th e writte n permissio n o f th e copyrigh t holde r an d th e publisher , applicatio n fo r whic h shal l b e mad e t o th e publishers . Ral f Dahrendor f 198
5

CONTENTS

The Hamlyn Lectures

The Hamlyn Trust

Foreword

1 . The Road to Anomia 2 . Seeking Rousseau, Finding Hobbes 3 . The Struggle for the Social Contract 4 . Society and Liberty Note s V I i x x i 1 4 1 8 1 12 1 16 2 Index 111

THE HAMLYN LECTURES

194
9 Freedo m unde r th e La w b y Th e Rt . Hon . Lor d Dennin g 195
0 Th e Inheritanc e o f th e Commo n La w b y Richar d O'Sullivan , Esq . 195
1 Th e Rationa l Strengt h o f Englis h La w b y Professo r F . H . Lawso n 195
2 Englis h La w an d th e Mora l La w b y Professo r A . L . Goodhar t 195
3 Th e Queen' s Peace b y Si r Carleto n Kem p Alle n 195
4 Executiv e Discretio n an d Judicia l Contro l b y Professo r C . J . Hamso n 195
5 Th e Proo f o f Guil t b y Professo r Glanvill e William s 195
6 Tria l b y Jur y b y Th e Rt . Hon . Lor d Devli n 195
7 Protectio n fro m Powe r unde r Englis h La w b y Th e Rt . Hon . Lor d MacDermot t 195
8 Th e Sanctit y o f Contract s i n Englis h La w b y Professo r Si r Davi d Hughe s Parr y 195
9 Judg e an d Juris t i n th e Reig n o f Victori a b y C . H . S . Fifoot , Esq . 196
0 Th e Commo n La w i n Indi a b y M . C . Setalvad , Esq . 196
1 Britis h Justice : Th e Scottis h Contributio n b y Professo r Si r Thoma s Smit h 196
2 Lawye r an d Litigan t i n Englan d b y Th e Rt . Hon . Si r Rober t Megarr y V I

The Hamlyn Lectures vii

196
3 Crim e an d th e Crimina l La w b y Th e Barones s Wootto n o f Abinge r 196
4 La w an d Lawyer s i n th e Unite d State s b y Dea n Erwi n N . Griswol d 196
5 Ne w La w fo r a Ne w World ? b y Th e Rt . Hon . Lor d Tangle y 196
6 Othe r People' s La w b y Th e Rt . Hon . Lor d Kilbrando n 196
7 Th e Contributio n o f Englis h La w t o Sout h Africa nLaw; and the Rule of Law in South Africaby The Hon. O. D. Schreiner 196
8 Justic e i n th e Welfar e Stat e b y Professo r H . Stree t 196
9 Th e Britis h Traditio n i n Canadia n La w b y Th e Hon . Bor a Laski n 197
0 Th e Englis h Judg e b y Henr y Ceci l 197
1 Punishment , Priso n an d th e Publi c b y Professo r Si r Ruper t Cros s 197
2 Labou r an d th e La w b y Professo r Si r Ott o Kahn-Freun d 197
3 Maladministratio n an d it s Remedie s b y Si r Kennet h Whear e 197
4 Englis h Law - Th e Ne w Dimensio n b y Th e Rt . Hon . Lor d Scarma n 197
5 Th e Lan d an d th e Development ; or , Th e Turmoi land the Tormentby Sir Desmond Heap 197
6 Th e Nationa l Insuranc e Commissioner s b y Si r Rober t Micklethwai t 197
7 Th e Europea n Communitie s an d th e Rul e o f La w b y Lor d MacKenzi e Stuar t viii The Hamlyn Lectures 197
8 Liberty , La w an d Justic e b y Professo r Si r Norma n Anderso n 197
9 Socia l Histor y an d La w Refor m b y Professo r Lor d McGrego r o f Durri s 198
0 Constitutiona l Fundamental s b y Professo r H . W . R . Wad e 198
1 Intolerabl e Inquisition ? Reflection s o n th e La w o fTax b y Huber t Monro e 198
2 Th e Ques t fo r Security : Employees , Tenants ,Wives b y Professo r Ton y Honor e 198
3 Hamly n Revisited : Th e Britis h Lega l Syste mTodayby Lord Hailsham of St. Marylebone 198
4 Th e Developmen t o f Consume r La w an d Policy - Bold Spirits and Timorous Soulsby Sir Gordon Borrie 198
5 La w an d Orde r b y Professo r Ral f Dahrendor f

THE HAMLYN TRUST

Th e Hamly n Trus t cam e int o existenc e unde r th e wil l o f th e lat e Mis s Emm a Warburto n Hamlyn , o f Torquay , wh o die d i n 194
1 a t th e ag e o f eighty . Sh e cam e o f a n ol d an d well-know n Devo n family . He r father , Willia m Bussel l

Hamlyn

, practise d i n Torqua y a s a solicito r fo r man y years . She was a woman of strong character, intelligent an d cultured , wel l verse d i n literature , musi c an d art , an d a love r o f he r country . Sh e inherite d a tast e fo r la w an d studie d th e subject . Sh e als o travelle d frequentl y t o th e

Continen

t an d abou t th e Mediterranean , an d gathere d impression s o f comparativ e jurisprudenc e an d ethnology . Mis s Hamly n bequeathe d th e residu e o f he r estat e i n term s whic h wer e though t vague . Th e matte r wa s take n t o th e Chancer y Divisio n o f th e Hig h Court , whic h o n

Novembe

r 29
, 1948
, approve d a Schem e fo r th e adminis - tratio n o f th e Trust . Paragrap h 3 o f th e Schem e i s a s fol - lows : "Th e objec t o f th e charit y i s th e furtheranc e b y lec - ture s o r otherwis e amon g th e Commo n Peopl e o f th e Unite d Kingdo m o f Grea t Britai n an d Norther n Ire - lan d o f th e knowledg e o f th e Comparativ e Jurispru - denc e an d th e Ethnolog y o f th e chie f Europea n countrie s includin g th e Unite d Kingdom , an d th e cir - cumstance s o f th e growt h o f suc h jurisprudenc e t o th e inten t tha t th e Commo n Peopl e o f th e Unite d King - do m ma y realis e th e privilege s whic h i n la w an d cus - to m the y enjo y i n compariso n wit h othe r Europea n

People

s an d realisin g an d appreciatin g suc h privilege s ma y recognis e th e responsibilitie s an d obligation s attachin g t o them. " I X x The Hamlyn Trust Th e Trustee s ar e t o includ e th e Vice-Chancello r o f th e

Universit

y o f Exete r an d representative s o f th e Univer - sitie s o f London , Leeds , Glasgow , Belfas t an d Wales . Th e Trustee s unde r th e Schem e numbe r eight :

Professo

r J . A . Andrews , M.A. , B.C.L., J.P.

Professo

r A . L . Diamond , LL.M. (Chairman) Th e Rt . Hon . Lor d Edmund-Davie s

Professo

r D . S . Greer , B.C.L. , LL.B. D . Harrison, M.A., PH.D., SC.D, F.R.S.C, F.i.chem.E.

Professo

r B . Hogan , LL.B .

Professo

r A . I . Ogus , M.A., B.C.L.

Professo

r D . M . Walker , Q.C, M.A., PH.D., LL.D., F.B.A . Fro m th e first th e Trustee s decide d t o organis e course s o f lecture s o f outstandin g interes t an d qualit y b y person s o f eminence , unde r th e auspice s o f co-operatin g Univer - sitie s o r othe r bodies , wit h a vie w t o th e lecture s bein g mad e availabl e i n boo k for m t o a wid e public . Th e Thirty-sevent h serie s o f Hamly n Lecture s wa s delivere d a t th e Institut e o f Advance d Lega l Studie s (Universit y o f London ) i n Ma y an d Jun e 198
5 b y

Professo

r Ral f Dahrendorf . July 1985
AUBRE

Y L. DIAMOND

Chairman

of the Trustees

FOREWORD

Th e titl e o f thi s littl e book , Law and Order, sounds techni- cal . It alludes to a problem of criminology, and also to a plan k i n th e platfor m o f th e politica l right . Th e argumen t o f th e book however is not primarily technical. It takes the terror s o f ou r street s an d th e riot s o n ou r footbal l ground s a s it s poin t o f departure , bu t the n goe s o n t o suc h issue s a s th e disorientatio n o f th e young , unemployment , an d crack s i n th e part y system . I n othe r words , thi s i s a boo k abou t socia l orde r an d liberty . A s a n unreconstructe d eighteenth-centur y liberal , I believ e tha t bi g subject s mus t b e treate d i n a lighte r vei n tha n mor e limite d ones . I wa s therefor e please d t o b e invite d t o giv e th e Hamly n Lecture s wit h thei r dis - tinguishe d tradition , an d thei r Schem e whic h emphasise s th e "privileges " a s wel l a s th e "responsibilitie s an d obli - gations " o f "la w an d custom " especiall y i n thei r Englis h version . Whil e th e boo k i s almos t twic e a s lon g a s th e lec - tures , I have kept their format, including the licence which thi s ar t for m permit s t o leav e a n argumen t suspende d i n mid-air , chang e th e subject , an d rais e question s withou t givin g definitiv e answers . I n thi s sense , th e littl e boo k i s a programm e a s muc h a s a complet e product , an d indee d a programm e whic h contain s n o promis e tha t i t wil l eve r b e complete d b y it s author . Easte r 198
5 R.D . X I

1. The Road to Anomia

I n Berlin , a t th e en d o f Apri l 1945
, th e sign s o

fdecomposition were unmistakable. I was not theonly one in our quiet suburban street who had beenhiding for weeks in a kind of voluntary house arrest.Next door, a young man who had been on the wayto his army unit, had extended his visit to relativesindefinitely to await the end. Now, things werechanging. Across the road, SS officers no longerwent in and out of the home of the pretty widow andher two daughters; soon their bedsheets would behung outside their windows to indicate surrender toofficers of the occupation forces. Others were lessadaptable. The retired military man a little furtherup the road was loading his gun in order to kill firsthis wife, then himself because the couple could notbear the moment of national shame. Elsewhere,shots were fired more arbitrarily. A young fanaticwounded a fellow Hitler Youth leader who haddared suggest that Hitler had led Germany into dis-aster. Was the Ftihrer still alive? Suddenly, it

1

2 The Road to Anomia

becam e clea r tha t ther e wa s n o authorit y left , non eat all.

Rumour

s starte d flying. Th e arm y store s i n th

enearby wood had been deserted! Could it be true?The young man next door and I went to see, foundthe stores without any sign of guards or occupants,grabbed a tray with some 50 pounds of fresh meatand carried it home where my mother proceeded toboil it in the washtub in the basement. The shopsaround the nearby subway station had been left bytheir owners! When I got there, dozens, perhapshundreds of people were dismantling counters andshelves; what goods there had been, had alreadybeen taken. The only exception was the bookshop,where connoisseurs were selecting what theywanted. I still have the five slim volumes of romanticpoetry which I acquired on that occasion. Acquired?Everyone carried bags and suitcases full of stolenthings home. Stolen? Perhaps, taken is more correct,because even the word, stealing, seemed to have lostits meaning.

The n th e firs t Russia n officer s walke d u p ou

rstreet, reminding us that new authorities were notfar. They began their rule as the old ones had fin-ished theirs, with a splurge of arbitrary acts of viol-

ence

, and very occasionally, of sympathy as well.When my history teacher, an anti-Nazi of Prussianconvictions, opened the door of his house, he wassimply shot dead by a Russian soldier. The elderlylady whom a soldier on horseback asked why she wascrying, and who explained that another soldier hadjust taken her bicycle, stood bewildered when theRussian stepped down, handed her the reins and

The Road to Anomia 3

softl y tol d he r t o tak e hi s hors e instead . Th e wa r o

fall against all was also a state of spontaneous com-passion. And of course, both did not last. Thesupreme, horrible moment of utter lawlessness wasbut a holding of breath between two regimes whichwere breathing equally heavily down the spines oftheir subjects. Like the fearful ecstasy of revolution,the moment passed. While yesterday's absolute lawbecame tomorrow's absolute injustice - and yester-day's injustice tomorrow's law - there was a briefpause of anomy, a few days, no more, with a fewweeks on either side first to disassemble, then tore-establish norms.

1 Thes e ar e lecture s abou t la w an d order . I shal l pre

-sently turn to the contemporary experiences to whichthis notion ordinarily refers, and throughout theargument, we shall not loose sight of the implicationsof an emphatic "law and order" attitude and policy.But to begin with Berlin - it might conceivably havebeen Beirut, or even Belfast - is more than an anec-dotal whim. These lectures are not intended to be atechnical contribution to criminology or the debateabout prisons and the police. They are rather, a con-tribution to social and political analysis, and moreprecisely, to the analysis of social conflict and thepolitical theory of liberalism.

Le t m e outlin e wha t I a m plannin g t o do , befor e

Ireturn to Berlin and to the facts about law and order.Traditional class struggles are no longer the domi-nant expression of the unsociable sociability of man.Instead, we find more individual and more occasion-al manifestations of social aggression. Violations ofthe law and breaches of public order by individuals,

4 The Road to Anomia

gang s an d crowd s ar e prominen t amon g them . I

nthe first lecture, we shall try to establish the factsand make sense of them so that the underlyingsocial problem becomes apparent. The second andthird lectures will be devoted to explanation, ormore cautiously perhaps, to understanding the con-text. On the level of motives and ideas, the declin-ing effectiveness of the law may be described as oneof the contradictions of modernity by which we aresurrounded wherever we look in the present world,from the Welfare State which actually creates a newpoverty to the nuclear threat which reminds us dailyof the ambivalence of human reason. We wanted asociety of autonomous citizens, and we have createda society of frightened or aggressive human beings.We sought Rousseau, and we have found Hobbes.On the level of social and political forces, the newand as yet barely comprehended conflict is a resultof the tendency, on the part of a large majority

class

, to define people out at the boundary in orderto protect its own position. As a result, the domi-nant issue is not the redistribution of scarceresources within an accepted framework - unlessone wants to describe membership of society itselfas a scarce resource - but the social contract. Thusour thesis is that law and order present the majorsubject of conflict in the developed societies of thefree world. That this should be so, is the seeminglyparadoxical result of a century of applied enlighten-ment and expanding citizenship rights. The questionremains what can be done about the new strugglefor the social contract. The fourth lecture deals withsolutions, or at any rate answers. Few such answers

The Road to Anomia 5

hav e bee n offered , an d som e ar e mor e frightenin

gthan the problem. There is a tendency for thearteries of the official society to harden and forthose who have the power to respond with "law andorder" measures in the common political sense. Itcan still be said that "the enemy" - the effectiveenemy of freedom that is - "stands on the right" (asthe German Chancellor Wirth, a man of the centre,put it after the assassination of the democratic poli-tician and industrialist Rathenau in 1922).

2 Whethe

ra liberal view of institutions has a chance againstsuch forces, is an open question; but it must be triedif we do not want to lose both security and free-dom.

3 Thi s i s heav y an d eve n opaqu e languag e whic h wil

lbecome lighter and clearer as we go along. Let usthen return to Berlin for a moment, and to the les-sons of the experience for law and order. One is thatlawlessness did not last. Perhaps it cannot last. It is afleeting moment of transition rather than a long-termstate of affairs. To be sure, in Beirut it seems to havelasted a long time; but then we are told that in Leba-non the apparent war of all against all is in fact ahighly structured affair. This is

a fortiori the case inBelfast. Civil war is something quite different fromthe erosion and eventual decomposition of law andorder. Wherever such decomposition occurs, itcreates a vacuum which not only does not endure,but which seems to invite rather elementary normsand sanctions and a very crude exercise of power.One of the miseries of anomy is that it augurs ill forliberty. It creates a state of fear while it lasts, andcalls for a state of tyranny as a remedy.

4 Onc e th e

6 The Road to Anomia

Hobbesia

n proble m o f orde r arises , th e solutio ntends to be Hobbesian as well. 5

Anothe

r lesso n o f th e Berli n stor y i s tha t i t pro

-vides a perspective on the dimension of the problem.The fall of Berlin in 1945 produced one of thoseabsolute situations which are as instructive about thehuman condition as they are rare in human history.Whatever may be felt, or found about the erosion oflaw and order in the free societies of the world today,is in fact but a rather small step in the direction of acondition which people have lived to see in Berlin,and perhaps in Beirut and Belfast as well. By andlarge, even New Yorkers live in a fairly orderlyworld in which there are no deserted army stores totake meat from, and where one cannot simply walkout of bookshops with volumes of romantic poetry.There is no total discontinuity of public authorities,nor is there a temporary suspension of their oper-ation. There are laws, and there is order.

Wha t the n d o w e mea n whe n w e spea k o f a n ero

-sion of law and order today? Is there in fact such aprocess at all? And if there is, does it have to lead allthe way to Anomia? Could it not be a temporaryaberration, or at any rate a reversible trend? Theseare big questions. They demand clear answers, andwe shall try to give them. However, as we embark onthis venture, I must ask the indulgence of those whoare experts in the vast literature on deviance, delin-quency and their causes. The following argumentwill be quite elementary, and it is based on equallyelementary facts. My only justification is that some-times simplicity allows one to cut through a tangle ofcomplications and get to the heart of the matter.

The Road to Anomia 7

Th e othe r da y I found , i n on e o f thos e gloss

ymagazines displayed in expensive hotel rooms for theedification of weary travellers, an "Editorial" whichran as follows:

"Hav e w e b y no w go t use d t o th e fac t tha t n owoman can go out alone at night, and that ourproperty is no longer safe? Ever y on e o f u s live s ever y da y wit h th e fea rthat ruthless criminals drive up in a van in brightdaylight and empty our houses. Yet if w e are notalerted by this happening to someone we know,we repress the problem. Ever y year , 4. 3 millio n crimina l act s occu r i

nthe country - an alarming and frighteningfigure, though only the tip of the iceberg,because the dark figure is many times higher.The cruelty and misery brought about by crimeis almost unimaginable, yet pain and sufferingare largely ignored.

I n th e las t te n years , th e numbe r o f crimina

lacts has increased by 70 per cent., with theft androbbery heading the list. But the number ofpolicemen was only raised by 35 per cent. Smallpolice stations had to be closed for cost reasons;in some cases, the police have to travel twentykilometres to get to the scene of a crime. By thattime the perpetrators have of course long disap-peared.

Detectio

n succeed s i n onl y 4 5 pe r cent , o f al l cases

, otherwise the police fumble in a fog ofdetection. Judging by these figures, the state isno longer able to look after our safety and theprotection of our property. Such observations

8 The Road to Anomia

requir e solutions . A first ste p i s o f cours e th

eemployment of more police forces, but theirtraining should be improved as well. Not leastshould we improve our attitude to the rule oflaw. Our youngsters keep on referring to 'pigs';our 'friend and helper' has an image which hassunk below zero.

Th e change s neede d cos t money . Th e minis -ter of interior refers to the empty coffers of the state

. My view is that subsidies for many abranch of industry are misspent. Here, everyyear a financial potential is poured out like awarm rain which could be spent for more safety.Nor can security within be allowed to collapsefor lack of manpower, for unemployed youthswill surely be grateful to find government-paid

jobs . W e al l wan t t o liv e i n safet y an d peac e again

.It must not happen that the citizen has to live inpermanent fear for his property. Or do we wanta 'nightwatchman' state which displays andtolerates laissez-faire attitudes towards crim-

inals?" 6 Th e temptatio n i s grea t t o pou r iron y ove r suc h state

-ments. The facts are misleading; figures of percent-age increases of criminal acts in general over anarbitrary period of time and in one country (in this

case

, Germany) tell us very little. The conclusionsare overstated; it is simply not true that anybody candrive up in a van anywhere and empty houses. Theremedies are implausible; even apart from the cur-ious notion that unemployed youths would providecheap policemen, increasing the police force in line

The Road to Anotnia 9

wit h increase s i n crim e i s simpl y a n expensiv e dis -traction. Ye t perhap s w e shoul d no t judg e ou r editorialis

ttoo harshly. For one thing, as one is tempted to castdoubt on the fear of others about law and order, it isas well to remember the stricture implicit in the NewYork quip: a liberal is a person who has not yet beenmugged? For another, the hotel journalist rep-resents a rather mild variant of a posture for whichthere are many cruder and more vicious examples inpopular newspapers as well as campaign speeches, tosay nothing of pubs and clubs. He has in the processraised the important question of the kind of govern-ment we want (though he seems slightly confusedabout the alternatives): Do we want a soft socialstate which allows crime to get out of hand - or atougher state which clamps down on crime and keepsthe needy busy by a Darwinian struggle for economicsurvival? Or is there a third alternative? RobertNozick's "minimal state" perhaps which, at least inits realm, is not a "nightwatchman's state," though itlets people do their thing elsewhere?

8 Bu t abov e all , th e fac t tha t th e editorialis t ca

nhope to meet with an appreciative response amonghis readers, is significant. They are of course comfor-tably-off middle-class people; but the responsewould reverberate among many who are less well-to-

do

. There is a widespread perception of seriousproblems of law and order. This has been docu-mented by opinion research, by the appeal of certainpolitical platforms, by the flourishing of the securitybusiness. Many people feel frightened, whether theyhave been mugged yet or not.

10 The Road to Anomia

An d ther e ar e reasons . Th e fact s ar e complex

,though ultimately unambiguous. Here are some ofthem, relating to the developed and free countries ofthe world about which we have fairly reliable infor-mation. In many of these countries, there has been amajor increase in crimes of violence against the per-son since the mid-1950s and even more dramatically,since the 1960s. In some, the rate of murders hasdoubled during this period. This is true in the UnitedStates, in Britain, in Germany, the Netherlands,Sweden. An even more general and pronouncedtrend is evident with respect to assault, robbery withviolence, and possibly rape. In many countries andmost large cities the incidence of these serious crimes

is , in the 1980s three times that or more of what itwas in the 1950s. 9 Th e increas e i n crime s agains t propert y i s stil

lmore dramatic. There are several big countries inwhich rates of robbery have at least quadrupled sincethe 1950s, and some, including Britain, where theyhave grown by an even larger factor. The riseappears to be particularly rapid in the 1980s. The evi-dence on theft is for a variety of reasons somewhatless convincing, but from available statistics andstudies, the probability is high that there has been asimilar increase.

Durin g th e sam e 3 0 years , ther e ha s probabl y bee

na considerable growth of the number of persons whocan be said to live on crime. Leon Radzinowicz andJoan King report the findings of surveys according towhich "very few people - less than one in ten - havenever been guilty of lawbreaking at all. And severalof the studies show that well over half confessed to at

The Road to Anomia 11

leas t on e crim e fo r which , i f convicte d a s adults , the ycould have been sent to prison." 1 0 Mor e significantly ,prosperity ha

s brought with it new categories of crime,such as thefts of and from cars. But above all, there isthe growing importance of drugs, and drug-relatedcrime, as well as the number of people who are able tomake a living out of a commodity which has a higheradded value at each stage than almost any legal good.

Wit h th e growin g numbe r o f crime s an d criminals

,there is also a growing number of victims. Clearly,New York is exceptional, where "it has been esti-mated that any citizen has six chances in ten, duringthe course of his or her life, of being the victim ofmurder, rape, assault or robbery."

1 1 Also , so-calle dvictimisation surveys are too recent to permit conclu-sive statements of trends

. On the other hand, there isenough evidence to state, at least for the UnitedStates and Britain, a growth in the number of victimsof crimes of violence against the person or of crimesagainst property in the last 30 years.

1 2 Thes e ar e facts . T o thi s extent , i n othe r words

,Radzinowicz's reference to a "relentless upsurge incrime" cannot be denied nor can Michael Zander'sstatement be disputed: "There is no doubt that thepublic's anxiety about the growing menace of crimeis well founded."

1 3 Thi s ha s t o b e emphasise d i n vie

wof the existence of a school of socio-ideology whichadvances a curious set of arguments against citing the

facts

. They are dismissed by some as irrelevant:"The law and order issue serves to deflect publicattention from more pressing issues, like death, des-truction, war, torture and starvation."

1 4 Other s tr yto make them disappear in a mist of interpretation:

12 The Road to Anomia

increasin g crim e rate s merel y tel l u s tha t peopl e ow

nmore goods, or that "we have made it easier forlower class persons ... to move freely about thecity," or simply that there are more young people.

1 5 Agai n other s follo w th e ol d adag e tha t i t i s no t th e murdere r bu t hi s victi m wh o i s guilt y an d recommen

d"better home security, car steering locks, entry-phones and the like" in the place of imprisonmentwhich "has only a marginal role in crime preventionat best."

1 6 I t i s wort h notin g howeve r tha t non e o

fthese attempts actually dispute the facts; they merelydo not face them. Yet we have to face them if wewant to understand the world in which we are living.This is not to detract from some necessary qualifi-cations. Comparative studies demonstrate that it ismisleading to speak loosely of developed free coun-

tries

. Even apart from Japan, there are considerabledifferences between them. International compari-sons of crime figures are notoriously difficult; butsome differences stand out.

1 7 Th e fact s whic h w

ehave cited apply more clearly to the United Statesthan to Canada; they apply to Britain but to Franceonly with respect to crimes against property, and thatto a lesser extent; they apply to Germany but appar-ently not to Italy, to Sweden but in a much morelimited way to the Netherlands. This may well betrue also for the rest of our analysis. We may thus betalking above all of Britain, Germany, the UnitedStates rather than France, Italy, Switzerland.Indeed, such differences raise questions of analysisthemselves: what is it that seems to make Francerelatively immune to the upsurge in crimes of viol-ence against the person? Why are rates of homicide

The Road to Anomia 13

relativel y stabl e i n Austria , Belgium , France , Italy ,Switzerland, whereas they have at least doubled inBritain and the United States? Th e othe r majo r qualificatio n i s tha t eve n wher

ewe have longitudinal comparisons, the evidence doesnot take us back very far. We are fortunate if we canfind comparable data from 1900 to the present whichenable us to assess the effect of the wars of this cen-tury on crime.

1 8 Ther e ar e som e isolate d America

nstudies about apparent increases in crimes of viol-ence at the time of the War of Independence, andagain after the Civil War, which lead at least oneauthor to the general observation that it is "extremedisorganization, or anomie," "the dislocation andvirtual collapse of the institutional order of the totalsociety," which result in rising rates of crime.

1 9 Ber -lin again! We shall return to the subject presently. Bu t wha t abou t Barbar a Tuchman' s Distant Mirror o f th e fourteent h centur y whic h sh e describe d wit

hmore than one eye on our own time? "The 14th cen-tury suffered so many 'strange and great perils andadversities' (in the words of a contemporary) that itsdisorders cannot be traced to any one cause; theywere the hoofprints of more than the four horsemenof St. John's vision, which had now become seven - plague, war, taxes, brigandage, bad government,insurrection, and schism in the Church."

2 0 Barbar

aTuchman is not only gloomy. After apocalypse,there is a new dawn. "Times were to grow worseover the next fifty years until at some imperceptiblemoment, by some mysterious chemistry, energieswere refreshed, ideas broke out of the mould of theMiddle Ages into new realms, and humanity found

14 The Road to Anomia

itsel f re-directed." 2 1 Ar e w e reall y passin g throug h

asimilar phase of "apocalypse"? And is the erosion oflaw and order one of the hoofprints of the horsemenof the twentieth century?

Mor e t o th e poin t perhaps : wha t abou t Englan d i

nthe seventeenth century? It was clearly no accidentthat the old idea of the social contract was redisco-vered at the time of the great disorders, nor are thevivid descriptions of the state of nature mere pro-ducts of the imagination of Thomas Hobbes or JohnLocke. "The shocks of civil war and regicide set mendebating about institutions and traditions that hadbeen instinctively obeyed for centuries."

2 2 On

ewould dearly like to know what other indicationsthere were of decomposition and impending change,and more particularly what the state of law and orderwas in the decades between Cromwell's assumptionof power and the "glorious revolution."

Thes e ar e ambitiou s questions , no t onl y becaus

ehistorical evidence to answer them is hard to comeby, but also because, like the experience of Berlin in

1945

, they suggest a dimension of the problem whichmay be far from what is happening in the free coun-tries of the world today.

Here , a mor e modes t an d als o mor e rigorou sanalysis is needed before the facts make any sense at all

. We have, as it were, illustrated the process of theerosion of law and order by a few indisputable facts.But what do the facts tell us? The answer may seemsimple enough, but it is not. As we examine the pos-sibilities we encounter a number of surprises.

Doe s th e erosio n o f la w an d orde r mea n tha t mor epeople are transgressing the norms established by

The Road to Anomia 15

du e constitutiona l process ? O r tha t mor e norm s ar

eviolated? At first sight, this may seem plausible, butas so often, it is useful to have a second look.There is deviance. This is not a very startling obser-vation. Some societies claim to have done awaywith all crime, and since there cannot be what mustnot be, they do not publish police statistics, therebymuddying the waters of comparative analysts. How-ever, the Soviet Union cannot deceive us in thisrespect. We know for a fact that its definition ofdeviance is among the narrowest, and its treatmentof deviants among the cruellest in the world. Itincludes the helpless victims of political pyschiatryas well as the modern slaves of Gulag and manywho are banned within as well as some who arebanned from the country. The German DemocraticRepublic, along with other East European coun-

tries

, naturally follows suit in this respect as inothers. Yet while there are no official crime figures,a textbook of criminal law (with restrictedcirculation) states somewhat pompously in 1984:"Delinquency in the GDR represents today a phe-nomenon of a relatively massive order of magni-

tude. " 2 3 I d o no t kno w whethe r ther e i s suc h a phenome

-non as a "natural rate of crime" in analogy to theeconomists' "natural rate of unemployment." Ifthere is, it probably has,to be adjusted as often asthat of unemployment, land usually upwards. Butwhatever the differences pf history and culture, it isdoubtful whether deviance can be pushed below acertain level, and questionable whether one shouldtry. In any case, a fairly significant level of crime is

16 The Road to Anomia

compatibl e wit h al l societies , an d notabl y wit h thos ewhich are vigorous and free. Thu s w e hav e t o rul e ou t th e extremes . Th e officia

lSoviet line is simply suspicious; the facts are differ-ent. On the other hand, Berlin 1945 is clearly outsidethe range of what might be called, normal. Butbetween the extremes of deceptive order and totaldisorder there is a wide range of real conditions. Wemay sense that the perceptions and facts with whichwe have started here describe a state of affairs whichis no longer normal, that it is unusual and perhapsunstable; but short of much better comparative andlongitudinal evidence, there is no way to substantiatesuch claims. The fact that many people - many morepeople than 30 year ago - act contrary to fairly ele-mentary norms, raises questions, but permits no con-clusions.

S o w e ar e lef t wit h ou r questio n wha t exactl y th

eerosion of law and order might mean. Is it perhapsthat many acts in contravention of norms remainunknown, or at any rate unreported? The latteraddition is intended to spell out that we are here con-cerned with

ignorance (as I shall call it) on the part ofauthorities about acts which would have to be classi-fied as criminal. Leon Radzinowicz is "inclined tobelieve that the criminal of today is more likely toremain hidden than his predecessor some forty orseventy years ago"

24
; h e cite s th e anonymit y o f lif

eand the mobility of people as supporting evidence.His guess that only 15 per cent, of all crimes everbecome fully known has since been largely con-firmed by surveys of victims which suggest that "atleast eighty per cent, of crime goes unreported, and

The Road to Anomia 17

thi s figur e i s almos t certainl y a gros s underesti -mate." 2 5 O f course , ther e i s n o wa y i n whic h th e his -torical assertion that this figure is "expanding," canbe proven.

People

, includin g scholarl y authors , ge t muc h agi

-tated about ignorance, and they are undoubtedlyright. Yet there is an important proviso. HeinrichPopitz (on whose analysis of the "normative con-struction of society" I am drawing here in more waysthan one) has written a little piece called, "On thePreventive Effect of Ignorance."

2 6 Usin g Willia

mThackeray's "On Being Found Out" to illustrate thatif all crimes were detected not only the emperor butmost ordinary men too would have no clothes - did Inot confess to once stealing romantic poetrymyself? - Popitz argues with beautiful irony theimportant point that no system of norms could bearfull knowledge of every breach. "A society whichwas to uncover every case of deviance, would ruinthe validity of its norms."

2 7 "Norm s canno t stan d th esearchlight, they need a little duskiness." 2 8 Again

,this is not to say that we have got the quantity, orindeed the social stratification of ignorance right. Itmay well be that there is too much ignorance in thewrong places. But a large question mark remainsover any conclusion that is drawn from such guess-work.

Wha t ha s bee n called , ignorance , i s o f cours e th

ereally dark figure of crime. However, there is also adark figure in the narrower sense which has to dowith the statement that known acts contrary tonorms remain undetected. Is this perhaps what wemean when we talk about the erosion of law and

18 The Road to Anomia

order ? I s there , i n othe r words , a dramati c declin e i

ndetection rates and a corresponding rise in the darkfigure of crime? We obviously know rather moreabout the dark figure than about ignorance, althoughwhat we seem to know is both disputed and variouslyinterpreted. It appears for example that detectionrates for recorded cases of theft are relatively low;official British estimates of 40 per cent, may well beon the high side. Reported murder on the other hand

is

, according to published figures, found out in morethe 80 per cent, of all cases. It has been argued thatthe more vicious a crime is, the higher the chance ofdetection

30
; bu t whethe r thi s applie s t o rape , o r eve

nto assault is doubtful. In both cases, the victims(women; young people who are themselves close tothe criminal scene) are often unlikely to report thecrime, and if it is reported, unwilling to help indetecting the offender. Thus, all we know is thatthere are significant differences in the dark figure ofdifferent crimes. Once again, the extremes must beruled out. Complete detection of all known crimes isunlikely in any category, and a zero rate of detectionwould be, to say the least, a little suspicious. Butonce again also there is a wide range which must beregarded, in the absence of clear and quantifiableevidence to the contrary, as normal.

I s ther e the n n o proble m o f la w an d order ? th

ethrust of our argument so far is that it is not easy topinpoint the problem. It is certainly not enough tocite increasing rates of crime, growing ignorance anda rising dark figure, and then say voila! as if it wasself-evident that these increases indicate a serioussecular process. For all we know, they may be well

The Road to Anomia 19

withi n a rang e o f normalcy , an d a t wors t temporar

yor conjunctural aberrations which will return tolower levels as certain passing social or economicconditions change. Rather this might be the case,unless one other condition is present which definesthe real problem of law and order: acts contrary tonorms remain unsanctioned. The increasing absenceof effective sanctions, if such exists, is the true mean-ing of the erosion of law and order. It not only des-cribes the phenomenon more precisely than thetransgression of norms or lack of knowledge about it,but it also removes it from the conjunctural and con-tingent. If violations of norms are not sanctioned, orno longer sanctioned systematically, they becomethemselves systematic. As we pursue such state-ments we are soon led into the treacherous yet fertilefield of anomy. I am using the ancient (the OxfordDictionary says, "obsolete") word rather than theterm anomie of modern social science for what Lam-barde described in 1591 as "bringing disorder, doubtand uncertainty over all."

3 1 Th e notio n tha t act s i n contraventio n o f norm

sremain unsanctioned, is itself quite complex. Thestory begins somewhere between ignorance and non-detection, when crimes become known to the policebut are not recorded. "Sorry, madam, but we reallyare too busy to come round when no one was hurtand all that was stolen was an old television set."There are layers of what might be called, dependingon one's perspective, the withholding of sanctions,or exemption from sanctions (Sanktionsverzicht

32
).There is the exemption from sanctions out of weak- ness , as when the police turns a blind eye on known

20 The Road to Anomia

delinquents . A lowe r readines s t o appl y sanction

smay become part and parcel of a prevailing social cli-mate. There is the deliberate waiver of sanctions, forfirst offenders, young offenders. There is the wholeprocess of the emasculation of sanctions, so thatpotential offenders know that a life sentence cannotmean more than 15 years of detention (as in Swe-

den)

. There is the inability to cope with offencesbecause they are too numerous, or too many peopleare involved in them at one time. These issues willaccompany us throughout. They are all examples ofimpunity, and I shall argue that it is in this area thatthe normative validity of a social order is decided.Impunity, or the systematic waiver of sanctions, linkscrime and the exercise of authority. It tells us some-thing about the legitimacy of an order. It is an indi-cator of decomposition as well as change andinnovation. The growing incidence of impunity leadsus to the core of the modern social problem.

I n th e pape r whic h I hav e alread y quoted , Popit

zargues that sanctioning breaches of norms must notexceed a limited quantitative range. If an employer,a parent, a superior in any context tries to sanctionevery transgression which he or she witness out ofthe corner of their eyes, they will destroy the effecti-veness of all sanctions. "A superior who cannot pre-tend to be dumb in some situations, is dumb."

3 3 Bu t here

, more than in the case of the dark figure, theboundary between the preventive and the destruc-tive effect of inaction is precarious. Waving thedisciplinary code every time a principal is displeased,and hiding it in the bottom drawer in the hope thatnobody remembers it, may well both lead to the

The Road to Anomia 21

sam e result , anomy . Anom y ensue s i f a large , an dgrowing number of breaches of norms are knownand reported, but not sanctioned. Th e term , anomy , wa s o f cours e introduce d int

omodern social science by Emile Durkheim in hisattempt to classify, and perhaps explain, suicide.Man is bound by social bonds which produce "a con-science superior to his own, the superiority of whichhe feels." "But when society is disturbed by somepainful crisis or by beneficent but abrupt transitions,it is momentarily incapable of exercising thisinfluence; thence come the sudden rises in the curveof suicides."

3 4 "Anomi e suicide " i s notabl y a conco

-mitant of economic crises, including the permanentcrisis of the industrial revolution. Durkheim's book,Suicide, was first published in 1897. His two majorFrench successors as analysts of suicide, MauriceHalbwachs (Les causes du suicide, 1930), and JeanBaechler (Les suicides, 1975) did not much like thenotion of anomy, nor did Jack D. Douglas in his

Social

Meanings of Suicide (1967). As one sociologistput it in connection with explanations of crime : "Therise and fall of anomie theory were both unusuallyspeedy happenings." 3 5 Bu t the n suc h theoretica l fashion s ar e alway s

alittle suspicious. It is often as well to ignore them andconcentrate on the substance of attempts at explana-tion. Durkheim was curiously ambiguous in his useof the term, anomy. Despite his sociological pro-: gramme of structural analysis, he wavered in this

; cas e betwee n a rathe r superficia l socio-economi

ct analysis and a somewhat dubious psychological classi-* fication. Halbwachs took him to task for the former

22 The Road to Anomia

an d pointe d ou t tha t i t i s b y n o mean s alway s tru ethat economic crises produce increases in suicide rates

, and that those most affected by them are infact unlikely candidates for suicide. Baechler whocannot speak of "the anomie so dear to Durkheim"without irony, makes a point which is more import-ant in our context when he says about "anomiesuicide": "I do not see the need to refute such vagueand general arguments, the explanatory interest ofwhich seems to me to be exactly nil." Baechler issaying that the unique and dramatic individual act ofsuicide cannot be explained by reference to a vaguelydefined social condition.

I n a n importan t sens e thi s als o applie s t o crim

ewhere Radzinowicz has made a similar point: "Defi-nitions and criteria of anomie have been vague,sometimes conflicting, sometimes circular. . . .Attempts to test its impact on criminality have notshown a simple relationship."

3 7 I t shoul d therefor

ebe stated clearly and without reservation that we arenot introducing the term, anomy, to explain individ-ual criminal acts. There probably is no such thing as"anomie suicide", and there certainly is no "anomiecrime". Anomy is a social condition which can giverise to many kinds of behaviour, as did the fall ofBerlin in 1945. The invocation of such a conditiondoes not invalidate the complex explanations ofdelinquency offered by criminologists nor does it addto them. The connection between anomy and crimeis not causal. Anomy provides a background con-dition in which crime

rates are likely to be high; andthe analysis of crime leads us to a better understand-ing of anomy. Moreover, the process of anomy has

The Road to Anomia 23

it s ow n interes t i n th e contex t o f socio-politica

lanalysis. It is introduced here to advance an argu-ment about social order and freedom, not aboutcrime and punishment.

Anom y the n i s no t a stat e o f mind , bu t a stat e o

fsociety. But what kind of state is it? Robert Mertonhas tried, in his famous essays on "Social Structureand Anomie," to render the term more precise:"Anomie is then conceived as a breakdown in thecultural structure, occurring particularly when thereis an acute disjunction between the cultural normsand goals, and the socially structured capacities ofmembers of the group to act in accord with them."

3 9 I n othe r words , i f peopl e ar e le d b y deepl y engraine

dassumptions of their culture, such as the Americandream of unlimited opportunities, to expect personalsuccess, but in fact social and economic factors pre-vent them from getting on, disorientation and uncer-tainty set in. Anthony Giddens has pursued thistheme and applied Merton's distinction of cultureand society - or, as Giddens prefers to say withDavid Lockwoods terms, of "social integration" and"system integration" - to the original theme,suicide. It is a pity that Giddens chooses to seek whathe calls a "point of articulation between social struc-tural and psychological factors," that is a translationof a social condition to individual action ("anomiesuicide"). The more plausible statement of

hi

s is this:"Anomie, as a general condition of social structure,sets a general 'background' making for disjunctionbetween social norms and the goals and aspirationswhich individuals hold."

4 0

Sortin

g ou t thes e variou s definition s migh t wel l

24 The Road to Anomia

lea d one to abandon the concept altogether. It seemsto tempt people t o take on too much at one time.Durkheim (an d i n hi s succession others, includingGiddens) misleadingly suggests that a state of socialdecomposition must lead t o certain individualcourses o f action. Merton equally misleadingly offersa possible partial explanation o f social decompo-sition - the disjunction between cultural goals an d socia l means - an d in the process overburdens as wel l as confuses a notion which is in the first instanceno more that th e description of an extreme social state , and which may well involve the decompositionof both culture an d society. Ye t i t would be a pity to abandon the word,anomy, which i s s o strong and has been so close his- toricall y to the description of the opposite conditionto social order. Perhaps w e ca n avoid misleadingconnotations b y a slight change of language and spea k of Anomia (in analogy to Utopia) instead.Anomia i s a social condition in which the normswhich govern people's behaviour have lost their val - idity . One guarantee of such validity consists in the clea r and present force of sanctions. Where impunityprevails, th e effectiveness of norms is in jeopardy. In thi s sense , Anomi a describe s a state of affairs in whic h breache s of norms go unpunished. Thi s i s a state of extreme uncertainty in which no on e know s wha t behaviou r to expect from others in give n situations . Ther e is a view of society under-lying such statements, o r a t an y rate a terminology,which needs t o b e made explicit. Human societiesare sets o f valid norms which make behaviour predic-table. Norms ar e valid not primarily because they are

The Road to Anomia 25

actuall y observed , o r i n som e absolut e sens e morall yright, but because their breach is punished by sanc- tions

. In a given social situation, we know whatbehaviour to expect from others because we knowthat if they behave differently they will be punished.Their effectiveness links norms through sanctionswith power, or rather, with institutionalised power,authority. Sanctions imply an agency which is able toenforce them. In this perspective, the social contract,that is the fictitious base of social order, is of necess-ity both a "contract of association" and a "contractof domination."

4 1 Th e relate d concept s o f norm , sanctio n an d auth

-ority not only help describe society, but their varie-ties would serve to identify open and totalitarian,traditional and modern societies as well as order andanomy. Yet to understand the latter, one dimensionhas to be added. We said that one guarantee of thevalidity of norms consists in sanctions. Effectivenessis however only one side of the coin. The otherbrings us back to Durkheim's "bonds" which are"not physical, but moral; that is, social," and to hisnotion of a conscience superior to our own.

4 2 Under

-neath social structure there are moulds of humanbehaviour which we may call, cultural. They too arechangeable, though they change more slowly thansocial structures; the deeper bond between motherand child is not immediately affected by changes inthe age of suffrage, or even of divorce law and rulesof inheritance. Among such cultural moulds are notonly those deeper bonds which we shall call, liga-

tures , but also moral beliefs and other ingredients ofpeople's conscience. They add an element of moral-

26 The Road to Anomia

it y t o th e validit y o f norms . Norm s ar e vali d i n othe

rwords if and when they are both effective and moral,that is (believed to be) real and (believed to be)right. It will readily be seen that there are relationsbetween this terminology and the concepts of legality(the positive effectiveness of norms) and legitimacy(the coincidence of effectiveness and morality).

Anomia

the n i s a conditio n i n whic h bot h th

esocial effectiveness and the cultural morality ofnorms tend towards zero. This in turn means thatsanctions are no longer applied and that people'sconscience is, in Durkheim's words, "incapable ofexercising [its] influence." Given the role of auth-ority in backing up sanctions, anomy is also anarchy.This is important, especially since it is not true, orrather often not believed to be true the other wayround. Many well-meaning anarchists dream of aworld in which all authority has been dispensed with,though few accept that this would also be a worldwithout norms. The anarchist dream is one of

self - sustainin g norm s withou t prisons , polic e an d politi - cians

. The dream is misguided, even dangerously soif it leads to attempts to implement it. Norms, sanc-tions and power are indissolubly linked. But one cansee why it should be tempting to decouple them. Itwould be nice to live in a world of law and orderwithout the institutions of law and order. Nice butimpractical, is how one might describe anarchy.Anomia, on the other hand, is like Utopia not somuch impractical as unreal. It may well be that, asRobert Merton suspected, there is a "strain towardanomie" in modern societies.

4 3 Indee d ther e i s per -haps a strain towards Anomia in all human societies.

The Road to Anomia 27

Afte r all , wh y shoul d peopl e submi t t o norms , sanc

-tions and authority rather than cheat the categoricalimperative in their own interest? But similarly, thereis a strain towards Utopia in people's thinking. Thedream of perfect order is ineradicable even in socialthought. Yet Utopia cannot be, however much detailParsonian sociology has added to it; men are foreverimperfect and history is therefore forever on themove.

4 4 An d Anomi a canno t last , eve n i f ther e ar eapproximations like Berlin 1945, or the orgasm ofrevolution.

Lambard

e pu t i t well ; Anomi a "bring s disorder

,doubt and uncertainty over all." People can nolonger predict whether their neighbour is going tokill them or give them his horse. Norms no longerseem to exist, or if they are invoked, they turn out tobe toothless. All sanctions seem to have witheredaway. This in turn refers to the disappearance ofpower or, more technically, a re-transformation oflegitimate authority into crude and arbitrary power.This is hardly a state in which anyone would wish to

live . It is likely that men could not survive in it forlong. Bu t me n ca n liv e o n th e roa d t o Anomi a whic h i

sin fact the condition of some contemporary societies.We have begun with statements about crime and itsvictims. They give pointers, but prove little. We havethen tried to make sense of the figures and dis-covered that the road to Anomia would be a roadalong which sanctions are progressively weakened.They are withheld by those in charge; individualsand groups are exempted from them. Impunitybecomes the order of the day. It remains for us to

28 The Road to Anomia

ask , an d answe r th e questio n whethe r ther e ar e an

yconvincing indications of this process of decliningsanctions, for only if this is the case does our centralthesis stand up. Are there kinds of breaches ofnorms and segments of society which the arm of thelaw does not reach? Is there a systematic decompo-sition of sanctions in important areas of social life?Are there, as it were, "no-go areas" in the social aswell as the physical sense where anything may hap-pen and anomy reigns? I believe that there are andwould cite in support four features of modern socie-ties which bring out the deeper problem of law andorder.

Th e firs t o f thes e feature s ma y wel l b e th e leas

timportant. It is that certain crimes, certain viola-tions of norms, have become no-go areas, as it were.This is of course not a new phenomenon. It canprobably be said that most fundamental changes ofnorms are preceded by periods in which sanctionsare no longer applied systematically. If abortion, orhomosexuality, are no longer prosecuted, this doesnot signify an intrinsic weakness of social order, buta process of changing values which will sooner orlater be translated into an adjustment of validnorms. In this sense, it is perfectly normal that thereshould be no-go areas for the sanctioning instances.

Bu t a lin e mus t b e draw n betwee n changin g norm

sand processes of decomposition. Two majorexamples illustrate the difference. There can be littledoubt that in most modern societies many incidentsof theft are no longer punished. We have seen thatthe dark figure is particularly high in the case oftheft; it is above 40 per cent. Experts suspect, and

The Road to Anomia 29

survey s o f victim s confirm , tha t ignoranc e i s als o par

-ticularly great; the overwhelming majority of theftsare not recorded. There is in addition the phenome-non of deliberate ignorance to which we havereferred; thefts are reported, but not investigated,let alone prosecuted. If and when they are prose-cuted, the result is more often than not what Zandercalls the "acquittal of the guilty"; in Britain alone,ten thousand such cases are known to occur eachyear.

4 5 I f thi s i s a sig n o f change , i t signifie s no t th earrival of new valid norms but of normlessness,anomy. Th e sam e i s tru e fo r tha t importan t featur e o

fmany modern societies, the black economy. A Ger-man tax lawyer created a storm when he argued onfairly conclusive evidence at a conference of taxaccountants in 1984 that 90 per cent, of all Germansare tax dodgers and explained this fact by "the non-punishment of the many."

4 6 "W e ar e no t a natio n o

fcriminals," the president of the accountants' bodyinsisted in his reply. He may be right in the sense thatin the absence of sanctions, the very term, criminal,ceases to have any meaning. But then the waiver ofsanctions against tax avoidance is a sign of decompo-sition rather than change. If 10 per cent, or more ofthe gross national product are produced in theshadows of the unofficial economy, this may be anexpression of people's vitality and their ability toescape the iron cage of bondage of modern bureauc-ratised states, but it is also a sign of anomy. Peopletake the law into their own hands. (They do so morein some countries than in others; from this point ofview, the stability of Italian crime figures takes on a

30 The Road to Anomia

ver y differen t complexion. ) Th e la w n o longe

rworks.A second social no-go area presents the mostserious problem of all, and will accompany usthroughout these lectures. It is that of youth. In allmodern societies, young people account for by farthe major part of all crimes, and notably seriouscrimes including homicide, rape, assault and rob-bery. The facts are shocking from any point of view."People under twenty-one account for somethinglike half of those found guilty of the traditionalcrimes." "In England boys are up to ten times aslikely to be dealt with for criminal offence as fullgrown men"; and in America, similarly, "the popu-lation aged fourteen to twenty-four [is] the groupfrom which most criminals are drawn." In Englandand Wales, no fewer than eight per cent, of all 14- to16-year-olds were "found guilty of, or cautioned for,serious offences" in one single year (1978). By con-trast, fewer than one-third of one per cent, of allthose who are 50 years old and older were foundguilty of such offences. Moreover, the rate for oldermen has not changed much over the years, whereasamong the young, there has been a major increase.For example, in England and Wales, the rate ofserious crimes among 14- to 16-year-olds was one-third of what it is today in the late 1960s.

4 8 Ther e i s n o shortag e o f similarl y strikin g data

.However, in terms of our definition of anomia, thecritical fact is that the system of sanctions associatedwith norms has been softened significantly and tosome extent suspended outright in the case of theyoung. So far as those under

1

7 years of age are con-

The Road to Anomia 31

cerned , conditiona l discharges , supervisio n orders

,and attendance centre orders account for more than50 per cent, of all sentences for serious offences (inEngland and Wales, 1978). A closer analysis of sen-tencing figures shows in all modern countries of thefree world a clear tendency to exempt youngoffenders from sanctions. At the very least we canstate that while the incidence of serious crimes hasincreased significantly among those under 20, therehas been a systematic tendency to reduce sanctionsfor the young. Whether we can also state that withthe - because of the? - waiver of sanctions againstthe young, juvenile delinquency has increased, maybe another matter. It takes us back to criminology,and the individual consequences of anomy. How-ever, even if there are one or two links missing in thestory, there remains a worrying paradox.

A thir d no-g o are a i s tha t fo r whic h th e notio n wa

soriginally invented. Although the police will denythat there are any areas which they avoid delibera-tely and systematically, many members of the publicknow - or believe they know, which is sufficient - that there are parts o

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