2. Lesson Objectives
• Understand an alternative explanation to
C&D (Merton)
• Introduce 5 responses to anomie
• Be able to evaluate Merton’s explanations
3. Last Lesson Recap
• What are the two key points that Durkheim said
crime was?
• And why?
• What are the two positive functions of crime?
• How does ‘9/11’ illustrate the positive functions
of crime that Durkheim identifies?
• What other functions of Crime exist?
• What is anomie
4. Merton
• Read pages 74-75 down to the heading
‘Deviant adaptations to strain’. Using the
ideas from this section, draw a diagram
showing how Merton explains why some
people commit deviant acts.
5. • Strain Theories argue people engage in
deviant behaviour when they are unable
to achieve socially approved goals by
legitimate means.
• Deviance is a result of a strain between:
1. The goals that a culture encourages
individuals to achieve
2. What the institutional structure of society
allows them to achieve legitimately
6. He used the lifestyle concept of the American Dream which places great emphasis on
material success.
7. In Western societies there are cultural goals that we’re all socialised to want like big
cars, big houses, splendid holidays etc…
8. Merton – The American Dream and
Strain Theory
Merton outlined five possible ways that members of
American society could respond to success goals:
Ritualism Retreatism Innovation Rebellion
and Conformity
9. • Conformist: Here the individual continues
to adhere to both goals and means
legitimately (M/C)
10. Innovation - accepting the goals but rejecting the institutionalised
means. Uses different ways to achieve those goals. Criminal
behaviour is included in this response (Theft, Fraud)
Stuart Howatson, 31, of Bewdley,
Worcestershire, duped his wife, family and
friends into believing he was a Scotland Yard
officer.
Over several years, Howatson detailed his
"career" to friends. While on holiday in Spain,
he convinced a friend that he could buy their
property for £720,000 without a mortgage. He
said he had come into an inheritance and
supplied false bank statements and monthly
deposits from the Metropolitan police and
MPA (Metropolitan Police Authority) to prove
his finances were sound, Worcester crown
court heard.
11. • Ritualism: stop trying to achieve goals but
internalized legitimate means so follow
rules e.g. stay in dead end job
12. • Retreatism: Here the individual rejects
both goals and means. This person is
dependent upon drugs or alcohol is
included in this form of behaviour.
13. • Rebellion: Both the socially sanctioned
goals and means are rejected and
different ones substituted. To bring about
revolutionary change & create a new
society e.g. hippies
14. Which of Merton’s types are the
following criminals?
• Drug addict
• A man who supports his family and
chases promotion so he can buy a bigger
family home
• Bank robbers
• Terrorists
• Which type is missing…give an example
15. Evaluation of Merton
Shows how normal and deviant
behaviour can arise from same
mainstream goals
• How does he explain patterns shown in
OCS?
• Most crime is property crime, because American
society values material wealth so highly
• Lower class crime rates are higher, because they have
least opportunity to obtain wealth legitmiately
16. On the sheet are a number of partly
completed statements relating to the
strengths and weaknesses of strain theory.
Your task is to:
1. complete the statements by selecting the
appropriate finishing clauses from those
provided
2. write a three lined commentary explaining
each statement (can use textbook to
assist)
17. • Using key words below summarise what
you have learnt today
KEY CONCEPT: value consensus; anomie;
cultural goals; institutionalised means;
conformity; innovation; ritualism;
retreatism; rebellion.
18. • Have a go at annotating the part of the
overview diagram which covers Merton.
Try to do most of this from memory.
Editor's Notes
Functional and Inevitable Boundary Maintenance/Adaptation and Change Anomie- a sense of moral confusion that weakens commitment to shared values and rules encouraging C&D
The American Dream emphasises ‘money success’. Americans are expected to pursue this goal by legitimate means e.g. education, hard work The ideology claims that American Society is meritocratic but in reality poverty and discrimination block opportunities for may to achieve by legitimate means The strain between goals and the lack of legitimate opportunities produces frustration and a pressure to resort to illegitimate means
Ritualism results from being strongly socialized to conform to expected behaviours
Merton doesn’t explain why some individuals commit crime, yet others conform, retreat or rebel Merton’s theory explains crime that results in economic gain, but he does not explain many forms of violent and sexual crimes He also fails to explain crimes committed by young people in gangs, which do not seem to be motivated by material goals White-collar and Corporate crime arises from access to opportunities rather than blocking them Merton fails to ask who benefits from the capitalist system and especially the laws that underpin it. Marxists, like Steven Box, suggest that the ruling capitalist class benefits most from the way laws are currently organised. However Sumner claims that Merton uncovered the main cause of crime in modern societies- the alienation caused by disillusionment with the impossible goals set by capitalism.
WEAKNESSES: he neglects the bigger questions of ‘who makes the laws in society’ and assumes that there is one overarching value consensus in a country as massive as America. It also over-predicts and exaggerates working class crime while underestimating middle class crime.
