Merton

• Merton's argument


  Society encourages us to subscribe to goals of material success but not everybody can achieve this as not everyone has an unequal chance of achieving success legally
• Merton argues that society is unequal
• Working class people

  • Have blocked opportunities (poverty and inadequate school)
  • This creates a strain between the goal society expects and the lack of legitimate means to do so
• Innovation


  1. Accept the goals of society

  2. Achieve this illegally

  3. Commit money crimes (utilitarian)

  4. Lower class
• Ritualism


  1. Give up striving for success

  2. Conform to the goals of society

  3. Continue to adopt legal means despite knowing they will not reach their goals

  4. Get by in a dead-end job
• Retreatism


  1. Dropouts

  2. Reject the goals and the means

  3. Little motivation or conformity

  4. Alcohol and drug abuse
• Rebellion


  1. Reject existing goals and means

  2. Want to replace them with new goals

  3. Aim to change society

  4. e.g. activists/protestors
• Strength of Merton's strain theory

  • Can help us understand why there are social class differences in crimes
  • Working class groups commit higher number of crimes and lack the means to achieve status and wealth in contrast to those from higher classes
  • This means that the working class group are experiencing strain and resorting to crime to achieve what they think they need
• Limitation of Merton's strain theory

  • Cannot explain all types of people who commit crime
  • Many wealthy people still commit crimes such as tax evasion
  • This means that they may be committing crime for other reasons, not strain
  • Therefore the theory is limited and could be used in conjunction with another theory