Robert Merton 's Deviance And Control

Merton developed a ‘strain theory’ building on Durkheim’s work. He said that crime was largely committed as a result of individuals not being able to achieve the goals impressed upon them by society (in his case the American Dream). This led people to turn to unconventional means in order to achieve these goals as they believe that happiness wealth and success are all interchangeable. While Merton does accept that everyone is different, he categorizes people into 5 adaptations to the strain; conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. Merton can be criticized as it is hard to believe that all people fit into 5 distinct categories with no overlaps. Furthermore Merton fails to explain non - utilitarianism crime, lots of crime is committed which does not financially benefit the criminals for example vandalism. Merton also fails to explain crime and deviance that isn’t committed as an individual

In comparison Merton’s theory put forward a entirely different rationalisation of the causes of crime, and juxtaposing major ideals about who commits these crimes, Marxists points out that absence of egalitarianism of opportunity is at the centre of the capitalist system and Merton contends that not all individuals who lack genuine opportunities look to crime to do so. (Eglin and Hester, 2013).

"I felt the need to explain to people what Walter had taught me. Walter made me understand why we have to reform a system of criminal justice that continues to treat people better if they are rich and guilty than if they are poor and innocent. A system that denies the poor the legal help they need, that makes wealth and status more important than culpability, must be changed." (Stevenson 313)

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

Cesare Lombroso along with other theorist throughout the years have made many arguments referring to physical appearance and criminality. Cesare Lombroso believed there was a relationship between crime and race. Similar to Lombroso, many other theories have come about with the connection of race, ethnicity, and crime. Theorist Robert Merton (1938) believed crime is made by a social structure that holds out the same goals to make it to the top. Individuals in society want to reach the goal but getting to the top is not equally distributed which drives individuals to find a way to reaching the goal, whether it be legal or illegally which results in deviant behavior. Merton predicted that the greatest proportion

Glenn Walters’s Lifestyle Theory is a theory stressing that crime is not just a behavior, but a general pattern of life (Walsh, 561). Walters believes that criminal conduct is part of a worldwide rule of life characterized by irresponsibility, impulsiveness, self-indulgence, negative interpersonal relationships and the chronic willingness to violate society’s rule (Walsh, 268). We are raised throughout life that to achieve true success, one must have wealth and be able to possess fancy cars or homes. We hear discussions from millionaires on television talk about how they are living the life of their dreams. They argue that they are hard-working and self-motivated individuals who accomplished much success on their own. In

"I felt the need to explain to people what Walter had taught me. Walter made me understand why we have to reform a system of criminal justice that continues to treat people better if they are rich and guilty than if they are poor and innocent. A system that denies the poor the legal help they need, that makes wealth and status more important than culpability, must be changed." (Stevenson 313)

Seymour M. Lipset2 contends that negative traits that plague the American landscape, such as “high crime and economic inequality”, are fundamental characteristics of and are inherently linked to a capitalistic and openly admirable democratic society. Not only does American history reside in the nature for “disdain of authority”, but current American norms signal that everyone must elevate their own status and rise above the ranks, both economically and socially. In analyzing the trends of high crime, acts such as theft, narcotics production and distribution, fraud, etc. are a means to

"When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw," (Kazi, 2017). The modern societies around the world put a high importance on preventing criminal activity and rectifying behavior that leads to crime. In an ongoing struggle against corruption, many sociologists, and psychologists have done in-depth research to understand what is the cause of crime in our society. Initially, in 1893, Emile Durkheim first came up with the idea called Anomie Theory to explain why offenses take place in our communities. Durkheim reported that crimes took place in our society because there was a lack of ethical norms and social standards within our communities (Walsh, 2018).However, almost half a century later, Robert K. Merton developed Merton's Strain Theory to thoroughly explain why some people in our society are more likely to commit crimes than the others who don’t. Merton’s Strain Theory argues that corruption not only occurs in our communities because we lack norms in our society, but are also caused by the strains that are present among us as individuals which influence people to commit the crime. In his explanation, people will resort to achieving success through illegitimate means when they are blocked from acquiring success through legitimate means (Walsh, 2018). After studying the classical strain theories, I think that Merton’s Strain Theory explains street crimes such as robbery, theft, assault, and drug dealing better than

Furthermore, Merton drew heavily upon Emile Durkheim’s anomie and normlessness that takes place during rapid change; however, Merton focused more upon the inability to achieve financial success (Schram, Tibbetts 173). Merton focused on the American Dream and how everyone in the United States strives for

Jeffrey Reiman, he is the author of the book the richer get s rich and the poor get prison. He has also written many of the good book, some of his works are critical moral liberalism. The main reason of the book can be identified by its title itself, and this is due to our recent economy system. This book is about the criminal justice system, and the main idea of the book is about the failure in the criminal justice system. Also this book tells how bias is accompanied with a general refusal to remedy the causes of crime poverty and discrimination. This book can be said as critique of criminal justice. Reiman states thesis in his introduction as he claims that the goal of the American criminal justice system is not to eliminate crime or to

His theory argues that individuals make individuals make bonds to society. He believed that there were four types of bonds. They are attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief. Most of the criminals have little to no conventional ties to the societies they live in. most of the criminals have little to no real attachment to the societies they live in because they are only looking out for themselves. If they did have families they put them second to partying with alcohol and drugs. They are not committed to any bonds because most of them have no jobs, families, or real friends. They have only committed to themselves and no one else. They may have people that they hang out with and party but at the end of the day they would not help them out if they needed it unless it benefitted themselves. They have no involvement in society because the only thing they care about themselves so no one else matters to them. This is why they will burglarize homes within their own neighborhood. The burglars also do not have any belief bonds with society. The society has morals and beliefs and these burglars did not agree with them so they kept burglarizing.

Robert D. Crutchfield when speaking of the social class differences to explain criminal involvement in the United States in his published work “From Slavery to Social Class to Disadvantage: An Intellectual History of the Use of Class to Explain Racial Differences in Criminal Involvement” asks an important question, why do we always connect crimes with race? Crutchfield states “When race is not the focus, differences in ethnicity, religion, immigration status, or some other marker of being “the other” are part of how we think about and talk about crime” (2). Crutchfield proposes that we continually seek “out” groups to ostracize and blame crime on. Out groups when blamed for crime, it is attributed to interiority or social class. We often attribute crimes (those of property and violence) to those of different races. But if the question was reworded and was understood to include collar crimes, white people would have a huge crime rate. Crutchfield stumbles on several correlations while in this inquiry: that African Americans are more involved in kinds of crime that lead to prison sentences (compared to whites), and that people in lower social classes serve time for these offenses. As African Americans, are very abundant and overrepresented in the areas of low socioeconomic class, the fallacy usually arises that the correlation between the poor African Americans and crime is prevalent. These two sets of data however, do not create a connection. Crutchfield analyzes the effects

Merton’s Anomie Theory believes that society shapes the cultural norms and values of people and also their aspirations and the approved methods of achieving such aspirations. Merton considers that there is a link between anomie in society and the difference between the levels of emphasis placed on aspirations and those placed on the means of realizing these aspirations in society; the smaller the difference the less likely anomie will occur. Merton also believes that crime is caused by society although he believes it is not useful to society; Merton believes that crime is a representation of the poor organization of society. In American culture, monetary success is the predominant cultural goal, but not everyone has the same access to attain it. Some people respond to this disjunction in criminal ways. Components of adaptation to strain include conformity which is when people embrace conventional social goals and also have the means to attain them, they can choose to conform. They remain law-abiding.

Human Nature According to Psychoanalysis and the Humanistic Psychology As Carl Jung stated “ As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of