Strain Theory
- Created by: Hollymurray99
- Created on: 06-12-17 14:32
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- Strain Theory
- Crime as a consequence of strain
- Merton argued in the in USA cultural
institutions such as the media social individuals to:
- Believe in the American dream – prosperity + upward mobility is available to anybody who works hard
- Achieve shared goals
- Achieve these by approved means (working hard).
- The institutional means of achieving prosperity (education + jobs) are usually provided by the social structure.
- However, Merton argues these structural means weren’t fairly distributed across social groups.
- He concluded a strain existed between dominant cultural goal and structural means of achieving that goal.
- Merton argued in the in USA cultural
institutions such as the media social individuals to:
- Strain Theory
- Merton believed strain led to poor experiencing anomie.
- Anomie potentially undermined committment to consensus an order and they may respond by 1/5 types of behaviour.
- Conformity - strong belief - accept structural means. E.g. majority response - most work hard and take responsibility for failure
- Innovation - strong belief - reject legitimate means, they see that the means to success are blocked. E.g. A minority choose criminality to achieve goal of prosperity e.g. gangsters and drug dealers
- Ritualism - weak belief - accept means but lack ambition. E.g. Someone in a low-level job who takes comfort in following their daily routine and the avoidance of risk.
- Retreatism - reject goal - reject means. E.g. Give up and drops out of society e.g. a drifter or drug addict.
- Rebellion - reject all goals, substitute alternative goals - aims to tear down and replace existing social means. E.g. Violent revolutions and terrorism e.g. French revolution (1789) or the Islamic Revolution in Iran (1979)
- Merton concludes that the behaviour of both criminals and non-criminals are shaped by the same material desires and goals.
- Evaluating Merton
- Clearly shows capitalist social structure as cause of crime.
- Does not explain why individuals choose the response they do.
- Fails to explain the crimes that are not economically motivated.
- Merton underestimates the amont of crime committed by upper and middle classes who are not affected by strain between goals and means.
- Crime as a consequence of strain
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