The Anomie-Strain Theory: Breakdown Of Social Norms

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In these chapters there were a lot of thoughts that stood out to me, but some theories caught my attention immediately. The Anomie-Strain Theory is a breakdown of social norms it also examines how the anomie causes the deviance. Merton and Durkheim evaluated the Anomie-Strain Theory quite differently. Durkheim stated that the anomie is absence of norms and it leads to the deviance. Merton’s view was the complete opposite of Durkheim and he stated that the deviance occurs when society encourages individuals to commit to it. Merton did believe that the legitimate means of success was not freely available to all of the classes. How lower classes are trapped into resorting to illegitimate means to achieve success. The level of success promoted by the social institution as normal, appropriate and attainable. By encouraging the high aspirations and denying avenues of success, society inadvertently creates deviance. There 1are three types of illegitimate opportunities, which are criminal subculture; youth achieve goals by stealing, robbing and fencing. The new direction for the Anomie-Strain Theory is that there is more emphasis on the United …show more content…
Sutherland stated that the deviance occurs in the people who have more concentrated criminal than the anti-criminal contacts. Another theory is the control theory and how it explores why people conform and not deviate. They accept Freudians idea that deviance can occur naturally, without social control. Tittle states that there is a lack of control balance is too little or too much control over the others. The Deterrence doctrine does emphasize the roles of formal social control in deterring deviance. It assumes humans are rational and will continue to commit crimes unless the cost is severe. The general deterrence is to deter the public from committing more

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and take on anomie and strain theory, and focusing their lens on “street” crime in high poverty neighborhoods. The theory direct our focus to how society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially accepted goals (such as the American Dream), though they lack the means, which then leads to breakdowns in, detachment from, norms. They argue that some substitute “counter norms,” “stretching” norms, and “innovate” to achieve their goals through deviance and crime. Despite these theories specifically…

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attempts to prevent criminal behaviour. Subcultural theories explain deviance in terms of the subculture of a social group, believing that certain groups and cultures develop norms and values that may be considered deviant to other groups. The Strain and Control theories have both linked crime with conformism, yet the Strain theory aligns itself with the belief that crime occurs due to the need to conform. Robert K. Merton outlined a different social process ‘involv{ing} conformity to conventional…

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