Merton's Strain Theory

• Merton: Deviance is the result of strain between...

  The goals that a culture encourages individuals to achieve. What the institution structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately. E.g. the American culture values 'money success'- individual material wealth and the high status that goes alongside this.
• Strain Theorist Perspective:

  Argue people engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve goals by legitimate means. They may become frustrated and resort to criminal means of getting what they want, or lash out on others in anger, or find comfort in their failure through drug use.
• The American Dream:

  Americans are expected to pursue their goals through legitimate means: self-discipline, qualifications, and hard work in a career. Their ideology tells Americans that society is meritocratic- opportunities are for all. Yet poverty, inadequate schools, and discrimination in the job market can block opportunities for minority ethnic groups and lower classes. Resulting in strain between the cultural goal of 'money success' and the lack of structural legitimacy, produces frustration/pressure.
• Merton: Strain to Anomie

  The pressure to deviate is called the 'strain to anomie'- due to the pressure of the American Dream placing more emphasis on achieving the success rather than the means. Winning the game becomes more important than playing by the rules. Meaning that as the norms aren't strong enough to prevent people from deviating, many then give in to the temptation.
• Deviant Adaptions to Strain

  Conformity: individuals accept the culturally approved goals and strive to achieve them legitimately. This is most common among middle class individuals who have opportunities to succeed. Merton sees this as the typical response of most Americans.
• Deviant Adaptions to Strain 


  Innovation: individuals accept the goal of money success, but use new 'illegitimate' means such as theft and fraud to achieve this. Those at the lower end of the class structure are under the greatest pressure to innovate.
• Deviant Adaptions to Strain 


  Ritualism: individuals give up on trying to achieve the goals, but have internalised the legitimate means and so they follow the rules for their own sake. This is typical of lower middle class office workers in the dead-end, routine jobs.
• Deviant Adaptions to Strain 


  Retreatism: individuals reject both the goals and the legitimate means and become dropouts. Merton includes 'psychotics, outcasts, tramps, chronic drunks, and drug addicts' as examples.
• Deviant Adaptions to Strain

  Rebellion: individuals reject the existing goals of society and means, but they replace these with new ones in a desire to bring about revolutionary change and create a new kind of society. Rebels include political radicals, and counter-cultures such as hippies.
• Evaluation of Merton:

  He explains the patterns shown in official statistics: most crime is property crime as American society values material wealth so highly; and lower class crime rates are higher as they have the least opportunity to obtain wealth legitimately. But it takes these statistics at face value, they over-represent working class crime, meaning this theory sees crime as a mainly w/c phenomenon. Its too deterministic; the working class experience the most strain, but not all deviate.
• Evaluation of Merton:

  Marxists claim it ignores the power of the ruling class to make and enforce laws in ways which criminalise the poor and not the rich.

  It only accounts for utilitarian crime for monetary gain, not crimes of violence. Also, this theory is hard to apply to state crimes such as genocide or torture.