Cultural Differences Vs And Robert Merton's Strain Theory

One example that is riddled with this strain theory idea is the making of America. Pioneers came from all over, immigrating to what is now the United States. These immigrants from Europe and Asia all saw the potential that the “American Dream” held for them, but most failed to see the hard work and tight pocketbooks that laid ahead of them. Many turned to theft, prostitution, and the like, since jobs in their specialty were not always available for them. They had good intentions— most often to take care of themselves and their family, but how these immigrants went about doing so was wrong. The way to achieve the American Dream was, and still is, through higher education—college only—and a solid work ethic.

In American society money is seen as the purpose of life, overemphasized. In attaining that money, for some individuals is not always great but the money in the end, the goal, is greater. Success is attainable for everyone which leaves failure to be the fault of the individual. Merton described five modes of adaptation, depending on the individual's attitudes toward cultural goals and institutional means to attain them. The first approach to the adaptation of strain in society is Conformity, the most common. Individuals accept both the goals as well as the advised means for attaining those goals. The last four adaptations Merton described were seen as deviant; Innovation, Ritualism, Retreatism, and Rebellion. Individuals

This essay will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of sociological explanations of crimes with links to Durkheim’s anomie theory, Merton’s strain theory and the Labelling theory which will draw upon different academics that will highlight these specific areas of research. In sociological terms, crime is a social concept as it does not exist as an autonomous entity, but it is socially constructed by people. It can be analysed that sociological explanations of crime attribute deviance to various aspects of the social environment. For example, crime is strongly related to modern city life where this type of social environment creates cultural enclaves which results in producing criminal or deviant behaviour (Carrabine et al, 2014).

The limitations of Merton’s theory of strain can be argued as the study, which he has compiled is only concentrated on working class crime, not the middle class and white collar crimes. Furthermore, there is an over prediction because not all individuals under strain become criminals. For example, women are under most strain with unequal pay, yet statistics prove that women commit less crime than men.

Robert Agnew’s General Strain theory expands prior theorist’s concepts which emphasizes that the obstruction of an individual goal or the inability of an individual to achieve conventional goals through appropriate means causes unlawful innovations, such as crime (Brezina, 2010). More so, Agnew’s expanded the concept of stressors in an effort to make stressors classless. In addition, Agnew states that the strains that generate strong pressure which tend to lead to criminal behaviors are chronic strains, strains that are rationalized to unjust or severe, and strains that can be resolved by crime (Agnew, 2001). Lastly, Agnew believes that criminal response is most likely to occur when normal coping strategies are absent.

In the 1980’s, Criminologist, Robert Agnew, presented his theory of general strain, in which he covers a range of negative behaviors, especially how adolescents deal with stresses of strain. General strain theory focuses on the source, such as anything that changes in the individual’s life that causes strain. His theory provides a different outlook on social control and social learning theory for two reasons: the type of social relationship that leads to delinquency and the motivation for the delinquency (Agnew, 1992). He states that certain strains and stresses increase the likelihood for crime such as economic deprivation, child abuse, and discrimination. These factors can cause an increase of crime through a range of negative emotions. For some people it can take a lot of willpower to take a corrective action and try to deter away from committing crime in a way that they can relieve these negative emotions. When people cannot cope with the stresses of the strain, they turn to crime as a coping mechanism. Agnew also states, that not all people that experience the stresses of strain will go forward to committing crime and live a deviant life.

A source of this strain that could have led to an influx of violent crime could be unemployment, without a job or work a person is more likely to commit a crime, even a violent one. The cause of manufacturing factories shutting down and moving overseas could cause “deprivation [due to] family disruption” (Siegel & McCormick 2016, pg. 221) from the loss of a job. Other evidence pointing to general strain theory being a cause of the violent crime rate is “subcultures blam[ing] others for their misfortunes, including aggressive illegal acts” (Siegel & McCormick 2016, pg. 221). However not everyone reacts to strain/stress the same way, and while some people do not commit antisocial behaviour there are some that do with recidivism more likely. Those who are more likely to commit another crime have distinctive traits which “ include having a difficult temperament, being overly sensitive or emotional, having a low tolerance for adversity, and having poor problem-solving skills. [They are also] linked to aggressive and antisocial behaviour, seem to be stable over a person’s life cycle.” (Siegel & McCormick 2016, pg. 222). In other words people who have these traits are shown to be more likely to have aggressive and antisocial

Burglary has an undeniably large presence in society. Consequently, there is significant discourse surrounding the major criminogenic forces that motivate burglars. As a result, this essay asserts that to a large extent, strain theory provides the most effective explanation for burglary. However, this essay recognises the limitations of strain theory, thus the essay acknowledges the smaller, albeit still significant roles that theories like Seduction of Crime theory and Conflict theory play in explaining burglary. To develop this hypothesis, a number of factors are explored. First however, a definition of burglary must be established; for the purposes of this essay, the Common Law definition shall be used. Additionally, strain theory’s fundamental

A study by Moon, Blurton, & McCluskey (2008) sought to assess the effect of strains and perceived strains injustice on delinquency. According to the research, perceived injustice and recent strains on an individual have significant effects on delinquency. The researchers based their study on the Agnew’s Strain Theory. According to the theory, when strain is perceived as unjust and is

Before we embark on description and analysis of a General Strain Theory of criminology, it is important to, first of all, understand the meaning of the term "criminology". Criminology, as defined by the two social theorists, Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham of Italy and England respectively in their classical school of criminology, is the scientific study of crime, its causes, law enforcement as well as prevention measures taken to curb and control the crime in this case. Despite the fact that criminology has lots of fields including sociology, economics, psychology, biology, psychiatry, statistics and even anthropology, the term also has various theories explaining the real concepts surrounding crime, criminal and criminologist. The reason as to why these theories are many is that criminologists are trying as much as possible to seek the best solutions for reducing the levels and types of crimes. In this regards, the specific theory of criminology that will be described and analyzed in this paper is the General Strain Theory.

These social forces are seen as ‘beyond an individual’s control’. With Merton’s strain theory those stratified at the bottom of society are under pressure to resort to crime. The gap between the cultural ends and social means proposed by anomie theory at the structural level implies that individuals in anomic situations may perceive this discrepancy, thereby experiencing strain. Strain is directly measured by the difference between an individuals aspirations and expectations. Anomie and strain theory together prove that the bigger this discrepancy between a persons aspirations and expectations, the higher the probability of that an individual will break the

The Chicago school of sociology believed that there were certain aspects that were inherent within an industrialized city that could cause criminal behavior. The school and there researcher believed that the way to find out if this hypothesis was correct was to analyze and observed the regions in which the criminal and deviant activities were occur in. The school decided that to get a better idea of how this was affecting the area they would have to get involve with the community and do some field work to gage the response of the citizens within the area, and to ask questions and fill out surveys to gain a better perspective of the issue at hand. The research study was “a literary mode by sociological reporters, who provided dense descriptions documenting in rich and intriguing detail particular events and processes from their experience of being immersed with actual participants and getting to know their situated life patterns and belief systems” (“The Chicago School”, n.d.). The main purpose of this research is to ascertain if the Chicago school of sociology and “General Strain Theory (GST) share any type of relationship in regards to stress, criminal behavior that leads to crime, negative emotions base on the community in which they reside, and failure to achieve positively valued goals (i.e., status or money) because of their living conditions or environment” (“Review of the Roots”, n.d.).

General Strain Theory proposes that crime is a possible response for those who cannot cope or control their negative emotions. Some people cope with negative emotions by working out, hitting a punching bag, or going to the park for a walk. These ways of coping with strain are a healthy way of letting out the stress. However, since “these emotions create pressure for corrective action, with crime being one method of coping. Crime may be a way to reduce or escape from strains.” (Agnew, 2013, p. 654).

Merton’s work has contributed greatly to criminological theory as he took a different perspective than Durkheim’s concept of anomie and reworked to the American context. The theories and concepts of anomie and strain that Merton argued have influenced the works of Cohen as well as the New Deviancy Theory and the New Penology. Therefore, Strain theory has evolved across time to encompass different situational circumstances of crime. Furthermore, due to the individual’s inability to achieve the appropriate cultural status, the idea of reference groups have also been highly relevant to today’s understanding of crime. Where evaluating oneself against peers constantly occurs as people try to better or compete against others.

In this essay we shall look at what crime is, what social problems are, and what sociological problems are , how they overlap and we will also look into what sociologists do and look into Robert Merton’s strain theory, and also other sociologists views like William Chambliss’s ‘roughnecks and saints’.