ipl-logo

Merton's Strain Theory Essay

1225 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Critique of merton's strain theory

A few years back, an incident arose with a two of my friends at a corner store. Through detailing this story, it will be illustrated how Merton’s (1938) strain theory and his concept of ‘anomie both has applicability and limitations. According to (BOOK), anomie arises when there is disconnect between one’s wants and one’s means. More specifically, Merton (1938) states that for anomie to occur, it must first consist “of culturally defined goals, purposes, and interests,” which “are related to the original drives of man, but they are not determined by them” (p. 672) and a social structure, which “defines, regulates, and controls the acceptable modes of achieving these goals” (p. 673). It is when there is a lack of congruence between one’s individual cultural aspirations and the acceptable modes of achieving them that anomie occurs, exerting “a definite pressure upon certain persons in the society to engage in nonconformist rather than conformist conduct” (p. 672). This strain was something that several of my high school friends experienced, but only one acted on it …show more content…

Jameel certainly didn’t want to rat Mike out, but he felt pushed into a corner. Then, when the police came, things got worse for Jameel. Although there was no evidence that it was Jameel that was responsible for shoplifting the lighter, there is one important differentiating factor between Mike and Jameel: the color of their skin. And while Jameel had been able to hold a solid after-school job at a computer and electronics store for years, not experiencing the material deprivation that Mike had, it seems his race was far more important. As such, while Mike’s lack of financial resources would validate Merton’s theory of anomie and strain, it does not account for the variability of factors such as race that are erroneously applied to people of marginalized racial and ethnic groups. It was like Jameel was guilty simply because of his

Show More
Related
1209 Words | 5 Pages

Also, it says that white people is more likely to commit robbery, and all the people involved in the Loomis Fargo robbery were white. The first article says that “The routine activities theory proposes that the existence of the three components in any situation will increase the chances of a crime occurring All of the suspects involved were rational motivated offenders” (Wang 2002). In the event selected for this research the three components where there. The first component is suitable target; the suitable target was the Loomis Fargo bank. the lack of guardian was that Ghantt knew at what time there would not be security at the vault, and that he worked there and had knowledge about the working hours and the bank security systems.

Read More
741 Words | 3 Pages

From Life to ‘Death Row Granny’ What comes to mind when thinking of grandmothers? Cookies, acts of spoiling, and love are just a few, but what does not come to mind may be something like arsenic killings. Yet, in Velma Barfield’s case, one might want to ponder this carefully. Obviously, arsenic poisoning is not something a normal grandmother would be known for, so it is not striking to assume some sort of strain took place in Barfield’s life.

Read More
1440 Words | 6 Pages

In his strain theory, Agnew identifies several other sources of strain besides Merton’s disjunction between goals and means (Hemmens & Walsh, 2014). In this perspective, strain includes the negative emotions that arise from social relationships. According to Agnew, strain occurs when from the removal of positively valued stimuli such as the loss of a romantic partner, the presentation of negative stimuli such as negative school experiences and the prevention or a threat to prevent an individual from obtaining a positively valued goal (Hemmens & Walsh, 2014). In the case of Lafeyette, his strain came from all three sources. The removal of positively valued stimuli for him was losing Terrence to prison and his two friends to death (Kotlowitz, 1991).

Read More
694 Words | 3 Pages

Before Mrs Grewell opened the students eyes to the wonders of empathy they automatically saw each other in a negative light based on skin color alone. After her lessons began to sink in, they began to connect to each other and find that racial separation would only lead to hatred and more violence. This theme of racial violence, translated in Just Walk on By affirms that a by product of racial stigma is that black men are more subject to criminal punishment because of societal expectations placed upon them. In both pieces, there is a general lesson stating that if your expectations are for someone to fail, or commit crimes, they will meet or even exceed those expectations unless shown another path. Unless society changes its view or expectation of black men, the impoverished, and failing students with harsh backgrounds, the white and wealthy will continue to

Read More
1048 Words | 5 Pages

a. Use Strain Theory to define and explain the following: i. The theft of a loaf of bread by a hungry person Using strain theory, the theft of a loaf of bread by a hungry person can be explained as a situation where an individual employs different means of success of getting fed, one that is against the agreeable ways in the society of getting money and feeding themselves. ii. Alcoholics Using strain theory, an alcohol has ultimately rejected the society’s goals of conforming to the societal values such as happiness and a stable job, such an individual essentially rejects the goals because they have been ultimately been unable to live up to the society’s standards. iii.

Read More
1675 Words | 7 Pages

Although, labelling theory can be criticised as not everyone who is labelled will live up to that label. Being labelled can motivate people to move away from negative stereotypes, which is shown within the article as single-mothers take part conspicuous consumption to move away from these labels, rather than act on them; which can remove the stigma surrounding single-mothers and chavs. Merton 's strain theory (1968, p.230) is present within the article, whereby people will turn to crime to attain their desired goods if they cannot do it through legitimate means (hard work, education). Denise and Barry believe they have to buy their children designer brands so that their children do not

Read More
929 Words | 4 Pages

Brezina, T. (2018).” General Strain Theory”. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology Available at: http://criminology.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-249. Timothy Brezina is from Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University. He gained his Ph.D from Emory university.

Read More
1090 Words | 5 Pages

However, in the book, Criminology the authors have stated, “…Strain theory states that social structures within society may pressure citizens to commit crime” (Adler, G.M., & Laufer W, 2010, p.105). With the increasing stress, the child needs diapers and the parent has no money and enters Walmart, decides to steal a box of diapers, and is caught in the parking lot. The conflict theorist

Read More
1894 Words | 8 Pages

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.

Read More
1140 Words | 5 Pages

There is a higher poverty percentage rate among black people than any other race, which is why they are more likely to be accused of a crime (kff.org). They believe that those who are poor are more likely to commit crimes because of the fact poverty hurts our ability to make decisions on school, finances and life (Thompson, 2013). There were other men outside searching for the twins, but it never occurred to them that one of the men could have been the culprit except for Robbie, as he was the only one accused. While Robbie was in prison, Cecilia wrote to him that “I’m beginning to understand the snobbery that lay behind their stupidity” (McEwan, 117) She believed that her parents were to believed he raped Lola because of his social status.

Read More
2124 Words | 9 Pages

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.

Read More
1216 Words | 5 Pages

However, Emile Durkheim understands the complications of his ideas because unstructured division of labor demands equability of external forces that he knows can never occur. The way that anomie would be define is the way that people or a crowd is in constant conflict with each other. Furthermore, anomie affects a group or people when they are struggling to follow the current norms, which causes people to feel separated from society

Read More
908 Words | 4 Pages

This paper draws on existing sociological research in identifying a number of theories used in explaining the formation of gangs. The theories discussed are social structure theories, social conflict theory, and social process theories all of which highlight elements of strain in different forms as they relates to gang formation. According to Merton, (as cited in Schneider & Tilly, 2004) structural theories significantly emphasize the role of social and economic structures as the causes of delinquent behavior and tend to treat criminal behavior as the result of the undesirable and dysfunctional structures (P. 3.).

Read More
1840 Words | 8 Pages

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)

Read More
1045 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More

More about Merton's Strain Theory Essay

Related Topics

Open Document