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John Merton's Theory Of Deviance In Society

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Introduction. Merton was an American Sociologist born on July 4th 1910. He Attended Temple College for undergraduate work and Harvard for graduate work, studying sociology at both and earning his doctorate degree in 1936. Merton taught at a number of universities for many years before retiring from teaching in 1984. Merton has been awarded honorary degrees by more than 20 universities including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Chicago as well as several other universities abroad. Today, Merton is considered to be one of the founding fathers of modern Sociology. In this essay, I will discuss the contribution Merton has made to Sociology. The main areas in which Merton has made a considerable contribution are in the founding of the Sociology of Science, …show more content…

It explains how internal changes can occur in a system. For Merton, anomie occurs when there is a discontinuation between cultural goals and the accepted methods available for reaching them. Merton links anomie with deviance and argues that the discontinuity between culture and structure leads to deviance in society, which is a dysfunction. Using the American Dream as an example, Merton developed the strain theory. Merton argues that while many social groups try to achieve this dream, for some it is not possible. There is then a strain on these groups to try and achieve this goal by means either legitimate or illegitimate. The strain between cultural values and the unequal distribution of legitimate opportunities then leads to deviance and crime. Merton believed there was five possible ways in which an individual could response. These are: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. The conformist accepts cultural goals and societies approved means for achieving them. An example of this is someone who works hard academically and achieves their degree. The innovator also accepts cultural goals but uses illegitimate means to achieve them. An example would be a student who wants to do well but instead of working hard, steals exam papers or cheats. The ritualist rejects culturally goals, but passively goes along with the behavior necessary to achieve those goals. For example a student who rejects academic work but goes along to all lectures. The retreatist rejects the cultural goals and the legitimate ways of achieving them. An example is someone who drops out of college. The rebel rejects both the goals and the means but instead of dropping out substitutes new goals and means of their own. An example is someone who drops out of college and becomes an actor. While Merton’s ideas are praised, they are also criticized as they don’t explain the high levels of white-collar

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Strain theory is a crime theory that was developed by Robert Merton, an American sociologist. According to Robert, strain can be defined as the discrepancies that result from the goals that are culturally defined in reference to the means that are institutionalized and available to meet the set goals. As proposed by Merton, there exists a typological deviance that is based on two criteria; an individual’s belief in how the goals should be attained and an individual’s adherence or motivation to cultural goals. According to the theory, certain stressors or strains are responsible in increasing the likelihood of crime activities around the world.

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Merton. The theory states that society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially accepted goals (such as the American dream) though they lack the means, this leads to strain which may lead the individuals to commit crimes. Two major concerns in strain theory are the sources of the strain, stress or how people adapt to the strain. Positivism are theories of social and structure are strain theories.

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It’s a race to see who can get the newest, most expensive hot commodity until its time to do it all again for the next one. With consumerism setting the values for society and applying the pressure to obtain these items, it forms a divide between those who can and those who cannot afford these objects. How will those who cannot afford the things society deems valuable conform to the rest of society? How will they feel like they are a successful, contributing part of society? Merton would believe that those who cannot obtain those societal values and/or goals through legitimate means would be at risk of entering an anomic state.

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In this view, there are many different moralities, which compete to become law. In several ways, this theory seems to match strain theory better than the consensus theory. As discussed previously, strain theory suggests that when goals become impossible to achieve through accepted means (defined by laws) crime is likely to occur. But why do these means fall short? It could simply be a natural consequence of society, or it could be a result of lawmakers, who are generally rich and powerful, seeking to protect their wealth by limiting the upward mobility of the economically disadvantaged.

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Strain and Deviance: an empirical test of General Strain Theory of in a Philippine Public University LITERATURE REVIEW Theoretical Background During the past decades, various criminologists developed different theories in an attempt to explain the causes of crime within the society. In return they were successful, as of today it was adopted or accepted, indeed all of theories explain the root causes of crime. One of these theories is anomie or strain theory which originally argues that the lower class frustration to higher class causes crime (Merton, 1938) in attempt to explain why majority of the people who commits crime are lower class.

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Albert Francis Charles Augustus Emmanuel Cohen presented the theory of gang constitution that used Merton’s strain theory as a basis for why individuals resort to such group behavior. There are five adaptions to strain and of the five Sanyika was proximately cognate to the adaptation of revolt, which is the most complex of the five adaptations. Strain is considered the primary source for the development of criminals. According to Cohen, delinquent youths begin to value destruction of property and skipping school, not because these behaviors lead to a payoff or success in the conventional world, but simply because they defy the conventional norms and laws as good, thereby psychologically and physically rejecting the cultural system that has been imposed on them without preparation and fair distribution of resources. (Tibbets, p. 116)

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The phenomena that Merton 's theory indicates towards can be successfully explained with the help of an example of how people achieve or strive to achieve economic success. For instance, in the U.S which has a capitalist system, everybody is motivated to attain financial profitability for a greater sense of positive identity. There are two legally approved ways of accomplishing this task, education and work. However, not everyone may have access to equal opportunities because of brokered access or discrimination on the basis of class, gender, race, sexuality etc. that is prevalent in most societies (Broidy & Agnew,1997).

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Sociology is “the scientific study of human life, social groups, whole societies and the human world as such” (Giddens 2009). Robert K. Merton (1910-2003) was an American sociologist who contributed greatly to the sociology we study today. He is best known for his theories of deviance, for his development of the concepts "self-fulfilling prophecy", “unintended consequences”, “role strain”, “reference group” ,"role model” and for founding the sociology of science. He is considered to have been one of America 's most influential social scientists. Robert Merton was born into a working class Eastern European Jewish immigrant family in Philadelphia as Meyer R. Schkolnick.

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The structural strain theory was developed by sociologist Robert K. Merton as part of the functionalist perspective. Strain occurs when individuals find it hard to achieve cultural goals through institutionalized means (Merton, 1938). This theory suggests that there are five responses to strain, which include conformity, ritualism, innovation, retreatism and rebellion (Andersen and Taylor, 2009). The responses are developed based on two factors, which are, first, whether the individual accepts or rejects the cultural goals of the society and second, whether the individual accepts or rejects the instituitionalized means of achieving them. To understand this theory, we first have to understand what cultural goals and the institutionalized means of achieving them mean.

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Criticism of Merton’s Strain Theory One critique of the strain theory is how it overemphasis the position of the social class in regards to crime and deviance. As we know, the strain theory applies mainly to the American lower class as they struggle the most. Our lower class are faced with the lack of resources to help them reconcile their goals. However, by looking at the variation of deviant and criminal behavior, the strain theory does not adequately account for any type of crimes besides the normal street or neighborhood crimes.

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2153 Words | 9 Pages

Juvenile Delinquency is a phenomenon that affects communities worldwide according to media reports, both print and electronic, where worrying images of youths involved in behavior outside societal norm has been highlighted. This issue has been studied by researchers locally, regionally and internationally where results has shown that delinquency has been influenced by a number of factors such as age, gender, race, family circle, environment, socioeconomic status et cetera. This research paper attempts to examine Juvenile delinquency and the effects of social structure on form (III) three students attending secondary schools in Trinidad. A structural functionalist perspective will be used based on factors that influence delinquency such as Poverty, Ideology of hegemony, and discrimination.

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The term "anomie," in this regard, stands for the absence of social regulation (Siegel, & Welsh, 2014). American sociologist Robert Merton emphasized the faulty relationship between the goal of the individual or the group of individuals and the legal means by which it is possible to achieve the goals (Thompson & Bynum, 2016). Robert Merton divided the goals into two distinct categories: the goals defined by culture and the acceptable means. Materialistic goals, such as a search for financial success, fall into the former category, whereas the goals such as education fall into the former (Thompson & Bynum, 2016). The main argument made by Merton is that the goal of achieving success is shared by the majority of people, whereas the seeking opportunities to do this legally through the means of

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Cultural rights are oftentimes qualified as an immature or underdeveloped category ' of human rights. It propose that, in comparing with other categories of human rights, namely,economic,civil, political and social, cultural rights are the undeveloped or least developed as far as their legal content, scope and enforceability are involved. An accompanying concern is that cultural rights includes the individual rights of the cultural group’s associate, particularly those most assailable, such as women and children. Such critique have power where cultural rights are declared or acknowledged in the repute of conserving cultural identity. Nonetheless, cultural rights also have been developed as human rights on the assumption of “liberal principles”

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Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) and Max Weber (1864-1920) are widely considered as two of the “founding fathers” of sociology. They are important for their contribution to understanding society. A great deal of their contributions have had a lasting impact into how sociological studies are conducted. The difference between these two sociologist is their theoretical perspectives. Unlike Weber who belonged to the interpretive perspective, Durkheim belonged to the functionalist perspective.

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1335 Words | 6 Pages

Merton was passionate about social science. His interests lay in interactions and the importance between social and cultural structures and science. One of Merton’s contributions to sociology was the notion of “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy”. For Merton, he cited ‘Thomas

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