Merton

• Key idea

  Blocked opportunities to achieve society’s goals by legitimate means causes individuals to use criminal means
• Strengths

  • shows how both normal and deviant behaviour arise from the same goals. conformists and innovators have the same goals but achieve them in different ways
  • explains patterns in official statistics
• Limitations

  • ignores crime of the wealthy and over predicts working class crime
  • sees deviance as an individual response ignoring group deviance and subcultures
  • focuses on utilitarian crime (theft) and ignoring crimes with no economic motive (vandalism)