Strain Theories: Merton and Institutional Anomie

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Jonestown and Strain Theories

The Jonestown Case: "Don't Drink the Kool-Aid"

• Origin of the phrase: Jonestown in Guyana during the 1960s.
• Jim Jones: leader of the People's Temple religious cult.

Teachings of the People's Temple:

• Revivalist Christianity blended with communism.
• Emphasis on racial equality: attracted many followers, especially racial minorities seeking hope.
• Early activities: soup kitchens, job placement, rent assistance, donation coordination.

Increasing Control and Isolation:

• "Us versus them" mentality.
• Discouraged interaction with outsiders, leading to family and support network disruption.
• Members gave up homes and paychecks, becoming reliant on the church.

Move to Jonestown, Guyana (1970s):

• Aim: to build a socialist paradise.
• Allegations: abuse, sexual assault, mind control; Jones dismissed them as attempts to discredit him.

1978 Incident and Mass Murder:

• US Representative visit: to investigate allegations.
• Followers expressed desire to leave.
• Jones sent members to prevent departure, resulting in a shooting: five killed, nine injured.
• Jones coerced remaining followers to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid, leading to mass murder.

Criminological questions:

• Why the tightening of control over members?
• How did care for social injustices transition to abuse and murder?
• Why did people follow him, withdrawing from social life?
• What promises did Jones offer that others couldn't?

Documentary and further investigations:

• Documentary with reenactments and real footage. Caution advised due to disturbing content.
• Survivor interviews: insights into motivations and experiences.

Introduction to Strain Theories

• Focus: impact of life pressures and social structure on behavior and crime.
• Strain theories emerged in the 1930s and 40s, alongside learning theories.
• Recognize the importance of both social structure and individual agency.

Functionalism:

• Everything exists because it is functional for society; crime serves a purpose.
• Example: Kingsley Davis argued that prostitution preserves the family. When families were split up during wars, it allowed there to be an option and sexual contact without interfering with the family.

Function of Crime:

• Reinforces social norms: communicates expected behaviors.
• Builds cohesion: social reaction teaches right behavior and creates in-group/out-group boundaries.

Merton's Strain Theory (Anomie Theory)

• Builds on functionalism: crime sustains inequality.
• Socioeconomic structure pressures people to achieve goals via socially acceptable means.

Core Idea:

• Crime results when people lack equal opportunities to reach goals.
• Focuses on the access to the means to achieve goals.
• Interested in why societies or communities are more crime-prone.

Primary Structures Responsible for Crime:

• Culturally defined goals.
• Institutional means of achieving them.

Integrated vs. Malintegrated Society:

• Integrated: individuals and groups agree on goals and have the means to achieve them.
• Malintegrated: goals outweigh means, or means outweigh goals.

Myth of Horatio Alger:

• Theme in books of Horatio Alger: anyone can achieve anything through hard work.
• Titles such as Sink or Swim, Ben Logan's Triumph, Strive and Succeed.
• Merton challenges this narrative: inequalities exist. Not everyone has the same oppurtunites.

Anomie

• Anomie means normlessness.
• Chaos where there is no rules guiding people's behavior.

The American Dream

• Everyone is socialized to want monetary success.
• The myth is recognizing that not everyone has same access to the institution
• Institutional means defined as power, education, wealth, money, income, networks, and the ability to connect with other people using that information
• Experiencing strain is undergoing something or forced to adapt

Cultural Goals:

• Monetary wealth, family, stability, acceptance, housing, business ownership, a fulfilled life.

Socially Acceptable Means:

• Education, employment.

Non-Acceptable Means:

• Robbing, gambling, murder, selling drugs.

Merton's Five Modes of Adaptation

Conformity:

• Accepts cultural goals and institutional means.
• Essential for societal function and low crime rates.

Innovation:

• Accepts cultural goals but rejects (or lacks access to) institutional means; may be legal or illegal.
• Driven by the ends justify the means.
• Societies with many innovators have high crime rates.

Ritualism:

• Rejects goals but accepts means; follows rules for their own sake.
• Seen as college students without goals or working simply for security.
• Predicts low crime rates.

Retreatism:

• Rejects both goals and means; retreats from society.
• Homeless communities, reclusive lifestyles, and substance abuse may be examples.

Rebellion:

• Rejects goals and means and replaces them with new ones, pushing for societal change.

Modes of Adaptation (cont.)

Is the American dream transferable?

• The american dream may not be true to all groups to society.
  • Example: Media sends messages whether they are explicit or implicit that we should be desiring particular kinds of things or reaching for a particular kinds of goals.

Evaluating Modes of Adaptation:

• If individuals dont have access to power, education, wealth, money or income there is the undergo of strain.
• People adapt when they undergo strain

Visual Representation of Modes

• Conformity: accepting the goals and the means flowing down the river

• Innovation: a barrier present that blocks reaching goals so there is need to find another way to innovate and reach for those goals

• Ritualism: They are participating in the River doesn't have is not interested in getting to the lake at the end. For Merton this is a work based Society, they're participating in the means but they're not really doing it because they agree that the goals are important.

• Retresatism: Not interested in the river and are not interested in the lake

• Rebellion: Replacing it with new one push back and say society's gotta change, here are the new goals and here are the new ways of achieving them

Questions:

• As there may not be the need to just adapt, can the modes be combined in one situation?

Considerations About the Modes of Adaptation:

• They are not types of people, thry are strategies that societies and communities use.

The Jonestown Case

Possible Mode of Adaptation Did Jim Jones and Followers Use?

• Retreatism seems to be the mode of Adaptation mostly related to their situation
  • They completely cut themselves off from society.
  • Before the final incident with the congressman there seemed to be planning for something else

Was There One adaptation that was possible?

• People want the things that the rest of society tells them they want such a protection and Security.
• That paved the way for this version to take place

Where we see low opportunity or where it's difficult for one the average of achieving societal goals

• Those are the areas that can see more innovation when they don't have the Institutional means to support those getting to those goals

• It's not an inequality or an advantage, but it's a little bit different from our early theories where we talked about power in equality and disadvantage like social disorganization theory.
  *What opportunities Do people have after sex means to achieve those goals is what Merton's theory says about the problem of disadvantage
  *The largest the gap is between the goals and ability the achieve. That's where you going to see that one's criminality

Criticism

• This discrepancy this gap between the goals and the means isn't really predicted in crime
• Monetary value isn't actually the thing that we are on value the most necessarily, we also value a whole range of things that aren't related to wealth, monetary success

Scope

Limited to thinking about kind if economic times of the motivations. It's really built for turning to understand how people can get and feel well than to get a monetary success.

Usefulness

• What can we do to change societies opportunity structure or change side structure to make opportunities more available to society.

• Relatively complex theory, not because of the narrowness kind of make it feel very singular

• The ethical evidence for this practice a lot so when we are talking about research. Doesn't appear to be a lot of it.

*Not doesn't mean that's not important and helpful for the failure of the supporting theory.

Institutional Anomie

• Modern day version of Merton's strain theory; Richard Rosenfeld and Messer.

Four Value Orientations Conducive to Criminality:

• Achievement orientation: valued based on achievements.
• Individualism: encourages people to make it on their own.
• Universalism: everyone is socialized to achieve the same goals.
• Fetishism of money: modern societies are preoccupied with monetary wealth and stability.

Dominant Institutions

• When economic comes most dominated they are also dominated. Because to that it becomes least important and no longer is is more effective
  • In this current society, there are a few institution such: the family, education, political, and economic institutions; but it may be dominated by the economic institution.

Why?:

• It becomes less effective in socializing values as individuals because of one institution.

Considerations Question: What are the Kinds of the dominating teams within each communitys or are they monetary or something else.
This Modern day adaptation is helping but also helping understand and explore even when using perspectives.

What's being discussed in the society now

• Economic, values, perspective on what it means to be law abiding.

Additional Consierations

• Is the value system thats important an on institution