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Leading Merton Deviance

485 Words2 Pages

In the 1940s, Robert Merton proposed a biological explanations of deviance with the conclusion that biology cannot account for similarities from one society to the next in the new era and range of deviance (Author Unknown, p 1). His primary focus was on why the rates of deviance differ so dramatically in different societies and for different subgroups within a single society which reflected back on the roles of the culture, particularly its unifying aspects; giving an explanation for the distribution of deviant behavior across groups defined by class, race, ethnicity, and the alike (Author Unknown, p 1). Leading Merton to borrow a concept from Durkheim to analyze situations in which culture creates deviance and conflict to a situation in which cultural norms break down because of rapid change leading people unable to adapt (Author Unknown, p 1). Merton define his concept to concentrate on a situation’s disparity between the culture's norms on what constitutes success in life (goals) and the culture's norms on the appropriate ways to achieve those …show more content…

When the heat (pressure) is on what does an individual do in order to obtain their desire goal or achievement? Under pressure some people are unable to cope causing them to make bad judgement calls to the extent of committing white collar crimes such as theft, selling drugs, prostitution, and etc. to obtain their means. According to Merton’s analysis we should emphasized success goals more than we emphasize approved means of achieving those goals, and if we have the same level of success for any race, ethnic, and class stratification of the society limits the opportunities for success by those in the less privileged groups (Author Unknown, p

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