Theory Application Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Introduction Both choice theories and social structure theories are based on a common implication that criminal activities just like acceptable just behavior, is not a determinant of psychological, natural or environmental aspects affecting an individual persuading him to commit the crime, but rather, people commit criminal acts willfully and voluntarily. They engage in crimes such as assaults, car thefts and burglary as per their own will just like anyone could choose to open a grocery store to earn income or go to college to acquire more knowledge and skill. People are in control over what step of life to take since they act as representatives of their own selves. …show more content…
Merton just after the Great Depression where he focused on the effects of poverty in such a country like the United States where economic success is given much emphasis. With this, the poor who do not have or have not achieved the American dream tend to feel alienated and frustrated. They, therefore, come up with their own ways of adapting and responding to the situations they are in (Merton, 1968). First, they may continue to accept the goal of success and continue working to earn it legitimately. Secondly, they may remain accepting the concept of living the American dream but discard the legitimate means and instead device their own illegitimate means. Thirdly, they may cast-off the concept of living the dream but continue to put more effort anyway. And lastly, they may cast-off both economic accomplishment together with the means of attainment dream either by alienating themselves from the society by engaging in …show more content…
However after the recession had ended, a number of them who were not able to secure employment could have no other avenue to earn a living and therefore any means for doing so as long as they make their ends meet did not matter (Grusky, 2011). The government made no efforts to uplifting people’s welfare through initiatives such as job creation making it difficult for them to survive without engaging in crime. Increasing the mandatory minimum sentence was just increasing the cost of crime, but there were no attempts of lowering the paybacks of committing crime or rather, decreasing the cost of non-crime and raising the non-crime paybacks. For most of the offenders, the cost of crime seemed to be lower than the non-crime cost and the paybacks of crime far outweigh the paybacks of no-crime and therefore opted to engage in crime. For instance, it is rationally beneficial to go and rob in order to get food than to stay cool and die of