Social facts are patterned ways of acting, thinking, and feeling that exist outside any one individual but that exert social control over each person. Durkheim believed that social facts must be explained by other social facts by reference to the social structure rather than to individual attributes.
Durkheim observed that rapid social change and a more specialized division of labor produce strains in society. These strains lead to a breakdown in traditional organization, values, and authority and to a dramatic increase in anomie a condition in which social control becomes ineffective as a result of the loss of shared values and of a sense of purpose in society. According to Durkheim anomie is most likely to occur during a period of rapid social change. In Suicide (1964 1897), he explored