Merton's Strain Theory

What do strain theories argue?

That people engage in deviant behaviour when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means.

Who was the first strain theory developed by?

Merton, who adapted Durkheim’s concept of anomie to explain deviance.

What does Merton’s explanation combine?

Two elements:

• Structural factors.

• Cultural factors.

What are structural factors?

Society’s unequal opportunity structure.

What are cultural factors?

The strong emphasis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them.

For Merton, what is deviance the result of?

A strain between:

• The goals that a culture encourages individuals to achieve.

• What the institutional structure of society allows them to achieve legitimately.

What does American culture value?

‘Money success‘ - individual material wealth and the high status that goes with it.

What are Americans expected to pursue?

The goal of money success by legitimate means: self-discipline, study, educational qualifications and hard work in a career.

What does the ideology of the American dream tell Americans?

That their society is a meritocratic one where anyone who makes the effort can get ahead - there are opportunities for all.

In reality, is the ideology of the American dream true for all Americans?

No: many disadvantages groups are denied opportunities to achieve legitimately. For example, poverty, inadequate schools and discrimination in the job market may block opportunities for many ethnic minorities and the lower classes.

What does the resulting strain between the cultural goal of money success and the lack of legitimate opportunities to achieve produce?

Frustration, and this in turn creates a pressure to resort to illegitimate means such as crime and deviance. Merton calls this the strain to anomie.

According to Merton, what is the pressure to deviate further increased by?

The fact that American culture puts more emphasis on achieving success at any price than upon doing so by legitimate means. Winning the game becomes more important than playing by the rules.

What is the summary of Merton’s strain theory?

Emphasised goals creates a pressure to succeed, and lack of opportunity creates a pressure to adopt illegitimate means, while the norms are not strong enough to prevent some form succumbing to his temptation.

What does Merton use strain theory to explain?

Some of the patterns found in society.

What does Merton argue?

That an individual’s position in the social structure affects the way they adapt or respond to the strain to anomie.

What are the five different adaptations or responses to the strain to anomie?

• Conformity.

• Innovation.

• Ritualism.

• Retreatism.

• Rebellion.

What is conformity?

Individuals accept the culturally approved goals and strive to achieve them legitimately. This is most likely among middle-class individuals who have good opportunities to achieve, but Merton sees it as the typical response of most Americans.

What is innovation?

Individuals accept the goal of money success but use 'new', illegitimate means such as theft or fraud to achieve it. As we have seen, those at the lower end of the class structure are under greatest pressure to innovate.

What is ritualism?

Individuals give up on trying to achieve the goals, but have internalised the legitimate means and so they follow the rules for their own sake. This is typical of lower-middle class office workers in dead-end, routine jobs.

What is retreatism?

Individuals reject both the goals and the legitimate means and become dropouts. Merton includes 'psychotics, outcasts, vagrants, tramps, chronic drunkards and drug addicts' as examples.

What is rebellion?

Individuals reject the existing society's goals and means, but they replace them with new ones in a desire to bring about revolutionary change and create a new kind of society. Rebels include political radicals and counter-cultures such as hippies.

What does Merton show?

How both normal and deviant behaviour can arise from the same mainstream goal: both conformists and innovators are pursuing money success - one legitimately, the other illegitimately.

What does Merton explain?

The patterns shown in official crime statistics:

• Most crime is propoerty crime, because American society values material wealth so highly.

• Lower-class crime rates are higher, because they have the least opportunity to obtain wealth legitimately.

What are the different grounds Merton’s theory is criticised on?

• It takes official crime statistics at face value. These over-represent working-class crime, so Merton sees crime as mainly a working-class phenomenon. It is also too deterministic: the working class experience the most strain, yet they don’t all deviate.

• Marxists argue that it ignores the power of the ruling class to make and enforce the laws in ways that criminalise the poor but not the rich.

• It only accounts for utilitarian crime, and it is hard to see how it could account for state crimes like genocide or torture.