Empirical SR Theorem: Structural Institutional Distortion is the foundational empirical paper of the SignalRupture framework. It demonstrates, across ten unrelated public governance systems, that institutions systematically compress, abstract, and reshape behavioural reality into administratively legible forms. Drawing from cybernetics, information theory, institutional theory, public administration, and complexity science, the paper formalizes institutional distortion as a measurable information‑transformation process rather than a moral or political failure. Using three operational SR metrics—Signal Compression Ratio (SCR), Administrative Abstraction Index (AAI), and Ground‑Truth Discrepancy Index (GTDI)—the study shows that behavioural complexity is consistently reduced by 75–85% as it moves from frontline documentation (GA1/GA2) into administrative representation (GA3). The recurrence of this pattern across homelessness governance, emergency medicine, corrections, welfare adjudication, psychiatry, child welfare, addictions response, and school discipline provides empirical support for the Structural Institutional Distortion Theorem: institutions converge toward their own administrative theories rather than toward the behavioural complexity of lived experience. The paper positions institutions as constrained information‑processing architectures operating under throughput pressure, audit dependency, liability management, and finite administrative capacity. Under these conditions, distortion is not anomalous—it is structural. The manuscript establishes SR as a unified systems‑theoretical framework capable of quantifying institutional legibility loss, representational divergence, and compression dynamics across governance domains.
Signal Rupture (2026) studied this question.