One evening in the queens section of new york city a young lady was assaulted and stabbed in the street as she returned home from work. even though nearly 40 residents of the neighborhood later testified they heard the woman's screams and some even witnessed the assault, not one called the police. sociologists refer to this feeling of detachment and a lack of belonging as

This feeling of detachment is known as anomie. Émile Durkheim identified anomie as a form of breakdown of the bonds between an individual and his society, so that society does not provide him with functional moral guidance. The Kitty Genovese case may be an example of urban anomie, since social bonds did not function to prompt her neighbors to alert police.

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