How does merton explain crime

The European economy as well as American economy was changing from agricultural based to manufacture based. Due to this quick change and a combination of different cultures meshing together, people would be confused due to all the change, this was known as anomie because what was once normal is not considered normal anymore.

The main concept of Strain Theory is that the media and society insidiously tell people that they need to gain material wealth in order to achieve a certain type of respectable status and if they are poor or in an unfortunate socio-economic position, with enough hard work, they too can achieve the American Dream.

Unfortunately Strain Theory explains, that not everyone can be lucky enough even with hard work to obtain the American Dream. Due to not obtaining the American Dream, and having blocked opportunities, people will find alternatives in order to try to obtain the American Dream, because it has been ingrained in them insidiously since they were a small child.

Society tells everyone that they are a success based upon how much material wealth they have obtained. This in turn, would make these unfortunate individuals develop a sort of strain; this strain in turn would make the individuals adopt into criminals, or conformists Keel, There are five different ways an individual under these specific circumstances would adopt.

They will conform, innovate, become ritualistic, a retreatists, or rebel against society itself. The conformist would just accept the way how things are and try to achieve success by following the system of legitimate hard work breeds success.

The conformist is the most common type of response to strain and an example of a conformist could be someone who is trying to achieve a modest amount of wealth by hard work. The innovator is a way to achieve success in a deviant or criminal manner, they would break some rules in order to try to achieve a type of success which is what is society insidiously tells everyone to do.

An example of an innovator would be a drug dealer or thief. Ritualistic is when an individual gives up in trying to achieve commercial success and tries to just focus with a hard dedication to what they already have, or to try to adhere to the rules in a very strict manner. Retreaters would give up in trying to achieve success and giving up the dreams of achieving any type of success as well.

An example of this type of person would be like a hermit. Evidence of strain theory. There is circumstantial evidence that there is strain in the lower classes of society.

Social strain theory : Social strain theory was developed by famed American sociologist Robert K. Merton who, in his discussion of deviance, proposed a typology of deviant behavior. Social Strain Theory: Five types of deviance. According to Merton, there are five types of deviance based upon these criteria: Conformity involves the acceptance of the cultural goals and means of attaining those goals.

Ritualism involves the rejection of cultural goals but the routinized acceptance of the means for achieving the goals. Retreatism involves the rejection of both the cultural goals and the traditional means of achieving those goals.

Rebellion is a special case wherein the individual rejects both the cultural goals and traditional means of achieving them but actively attempts to replace both elements of the society with different goals and means.

The goal must therefore be a genuine social and welfare state in which it is possible for everyone to achieve cultural goals by legitimate means.

In this context, Merton explains monetary crimes such as robbery or burglary, but not crimes such as murder or rape. Due to the lack of access to legitimate means to achieve goals, Merton explains criminality only within the lower class, because it can be assumed that the middle and upper classes actually have these means at their disposal. Access to illegitimate means is not considered. Furthermore, Merton does not answer the question of why people react differently in stressful situations.

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