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Strain Theory of Deviance

Strain theory, developed by sociologist Robert Merton, posits that when people are prevented from achieving culturally approved goals through institutional means, they experience strain or frustration that can lead to deviance. For example, five percent of graduating high school seniors want to attend college but cannot for various reasons, and may feel frustrated because they cannot achieve the culturally approved goal of financial success through the usual institutional means of attending college. This strain can result in deviant behavior as a way to achieve goals without access to legitimate means. Merton also theorized that deviant behavior can result from increased access to illegitimate opportunity structures that provide ways to achieve success through illegal means, as seen in poor urban areas where crime provides opportunities for

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288 views

Strain Theory of Deviance

Strain theory, developed by sociologist Robert Merton, posits that when people are prevented from achieving culturally approved goals through institutional means, they experience strain or frustration that can lead to deviance. For example, five percent of graduating high school seniors want to attend college but cannot for various reasons, and may feel frustrated because they cannot achieve the culturally approved goal of financial success through the usual institutional means of attending college. This strain can result in deviant behavior as a way to achieve goals without access to legitimate means. Merton also theorized that deviant behavior can result from increased access to illegitimate opportunity structures that provide ways to achieve success through illegal means, as seen in poor urban areas where crime provides opportunities for

Uploaded by

BrandySterling
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Strain Theory of Deviance

Sometimes people find that when they attempt to attain culturally approved goals,
their paths are blocked. Not everyone has access to institutionalized means, or
legitimate ways of achieving success. Strain theory, developed by sociologist Robert
Merton, posits that when people are prevented from achieving culturally approved
goals through institutional means, they experience strain or frustration that can
lead to deviance. He said that they also experience anomie, or feelings of being
disconnected from society, which can occur when people do not have access to the
institutionalized means to achieve their goals.

Example: In a class of graduating high school seniors, 90 percent of the students


have been accepted at various colleges. Five percent do not want to go to college,
and the remaining five percent want to go to college but cannot, for any one of a
number of reasons. All of the students want to succeed financially, and attending
college is generally accepted as the first step toward that goal. The five percent
who want to attend college but cant probably feel frustrated. They had the same
goals as everyone else but were blocked from the usual means of achieving them.
They may act out in a deviant manner.

Institutionalized Means to Success

In the 1960s, sociologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin theorized that the most
difficult task facing industrialized societies is finding and training people to take
over the most intellectually demanding jobs from the previous generation. To
progress, society needs a literate, highly trained work force. Societys job is to
motivate its citizens to excel in the workplace, and the best way to do that is to
foment discontent with the status quo. Cloward and Ohlin argued that if people
were dissatisfied with what they had, what they earned, or where they lived, they
would be motivated to work harder to improve their circumstances.

In order to compete in the world marketplace, a society must offer institutionalized


means of succeeding. For example, societies that value higher education as a way
to advance in the workplace must make educational opportunity available to
everyone.

legitimate Opportunity Structures

Cloward and Ohlin further elaborated on Mertons strain theory. Deviant behavior
crime in particularwas not just a response to limited institutionalized means of
success. Rather, crime also resulted from increased access to illegitimate
opportunity structures, or various illegal means to achieve success. These
structures, such as crime, are often more available to poor people living in urban
slums. In the inner city, a poor person can become involved in prostitution, robbery,
drug dealing, or loan sharking to make money. While these activities are clearly
illegal, they often provide opportunities to make large amounts of money, as well as
gain status among ones peers.

Reactions to Cultural Goals and Institutionalized Means

Merton theorized about how members of a society respond to cultural goals and
institutionalized means. He found that people adapt their goals in response to the
means that society provides to achieve them. He identified five types of reactions:

Conformists: Most people are conformists. They accept the goals their society sets
for them, as well as the institution-alized means of achieving them. Most people
want to achieve that vague status called a good life and accept that an education
and hard work are the best ways to get there.
Innovators: These people accept societys goals but reject the usual ways of
achieving them. Members of organized crime, who have money but achieve their
wealth via deviant means, could be considered innovators.
Ritualists: A ritualist rejects cultural goals but still accepts the institutionalized
means of achieving them. If a person who has held the same job for years has no
desire for more money, responsibility, power, or status, he or she is a ritualist. This
person engages in the same rituals every day but has given up hope that the efforts
will yield the desired results.
Retreatists: Retreatists reject cultural goals as well as the institutionalized means of
achieving them. They are not interested in making money or advancing in a

particular career, and they tend not to care about hard work or about getting an
education.
Rebels: Rebels not only reject culturally approved goals and the means of achieving
them, but they replace them with their own goals. Revolutionaries are rebels in that
they reject the status quo. If a revolutionary rejects capitalism or democracy, for
example, he or she may attempt to replace it with his or her own form of
government.
Mertons Goals and Means
Method of adaptation

Cultural goals

Institutionalized means

Conformists

Accept

Accept

Innovators

Accept

Reject

Ritualists

Reject

Accept

Retreatists

Reject

Reject

Rebels

Reject/Replace

Reject/Replace

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