Merton

• Merton’s strain theory:

  merton argues that society encourages us to subscribe to goals of material success, but not everybody can achieve this.

  -to everyone has an equal chance of achieving success legitimately (legally)

  -argues society is unequal

  -working class people have blocked opportunities - poverty and inadequate schools

  -this creates a strain between the goal society expects and the lack of legitimate means to do so

  -Merton says that the American Dream is not necessarily true
• ways of adapting the strain?

  innovation -> accept the gaols of society, achieve it illegitimately, commit utilitarian crimes, lower class

  ritualism -> give up on striving for success, conform to the goals of society, continue to adopt legitimate means despite knowing they will not achieve their goals, get by in a dead-end job

  retreatism -> dropouts, reject the goals and the means, little motivation or conformity, alcohol and drug abuse

  rebellion -> reject existing goals and means, want to replace them with new ones, aim to change society, activists and protestors
• strengths:

  • supported by official statistics that show most common forms of crime is property crime, indicating society does value property and wealth and these values drive people to commit crime
  • strain theory helps us understadn why there is social class differences in crime. WC commit higher numbers of crime to achieve wealth those of higher classes have. suggests WC experience strain and resort to crime to achieve what they think they need.
• weakness:

  strain theory cannot explain all people who commit crime, wealthy people commit crimes like tax evasion or breaching health and safety in workplaces despite their wealth. means they may be committing crime for other reasons.