Merton

• Summary - the lack of means to achieve society's goals can mean that people turn to crime
• Strength - Working class crime rate is much higher due to this lack of opportunities
• Strength - He explains the patterns shown in official statistics, most crime is property crime because society values money
• Strength - Merton shows how normal and deviant behaviour arises from the same goal
• Weakness - Merton focus on utilitarian crime and ignores crime that has not economic incentive
• Weakness - Merton sees deviance as only an individual response and ignores group deviance
• Weakness - Merton ignores crime that is committed by the wealthy and he over predicts the extent of working class crime