Merton's Theory of Anomie | Criminological Perspective | Criminology | CSS Criminology Lectures
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In this video, I have
In this video, I have explained Merton's Theory of Anomie in full detail.
Merton's Theory of Anomie was presented by Robert King Merton in 1938 and again in 1954.
In his theory of Anomie, Merton applied Durkheim’s idea of Anomie with some modifications. According to Merton, two elements of culture interact to produce potentially anomic conditions:
• Culturally defined goals/Positively Valued Goals
• Socially approved means for obtaining Positively Valued Goals
Merton argues that in modern society, acquiring wealth, success, and power are positively valued goals. Everyone wants to achieve these goals because society gives respect to people with wealth, success, and Power. Socially approved means to achieve these goals include hard work, education, and thrift (prudence). These means are stratified across the cultural landscape, i.e., everyone does not have access to these means. Only rich people can avail utilized these means to get positively valued goals.
When culturally defined or positively valued goals are uniform throughout society and access to the legitimate means to achieve them is bound by class and economic status, it produces “strain” in those who are locked out of the legitimate opportunity structure. This strain leads to anomie in society. Different people resort to different social adaptions to put an end to the strain.
In an anomic society, the following are different categories of people with respect to their relations with socially defined and positively valued goals.
• Conformity & Conformists: Conformity occurs when an individual accepts conventional positively valued goals and possesses socially approved means to achieve them. The conformists desire wealth and power and can attain them through business or high-paying jobs, simply because they have money to get an education or start a business.
• Ritualism & Ritualists: Ritualists are those people who enjoy routine work and do not have the ambition to climb to the top of their profession. In other words, they rejected the established goals. For example, professors are ritualists. They earn enough to feed themselves and their families and remain happy. People under strain usually do not adopt this way because they always have high goals.
• Innovation: Innovation occurs when an individual wants to achieve socially recognized goals but rejects or is incapable of attaining them through socially approved means. Consequently, such people adopt unique or unconventional means to get socially recognized goals. These means may be legal or illegal. For example, 15 years ago, selling goods and providing services online were unconventional but legal means of earning money. Now, Selling drugs, looting banks, and hacking bank accounts, etc. are unconventional and illegal means of accumulating money. According to Merton’s Theory of Anomie, innovative people are more likely to show criminal behavior. When criminals gain conventional goals through illegitimate means, they give a message that crime pays.
• Rebellion
Rebels neither accept conventional goals nor the means to achieve them. They define their own goals and design the means to achieve them. Rebellion involves substituting an alternative set of goals and means for conventional ones. Revolutionaries who wish to promote radical change in the existing social structure and who call for an alternative lifestyle, goals, and beliefs are engaging in rebellion. They may commit crimes in the conventional sense.
• Retreatism
The subscribers of retreatism (Retreatists) reject both the culturally defined goals and the socially defined means to attain them. These people are “ in the society but not of it.” They live like symbionts on the earning of others. Some people under strain may adopt this way after their failure to achieve culturally defined goals.
According to Merton's theory of Anomie, to resolve the goals-means conflict and relieve their sense of strain, people adopt any of the above-mentioned ways. Those who decide to become innovators or rebels may commit crimes in most cases.
By acknowledging that society distributes the legitimate means to achieving success, the theory helps explain the existence of high-crime areas and the apparent predominance of delinquent and criminal behavior among the lower class. The theory suggests that social conditions, not an individual’s personality, lead one to commit a crime.
#criminology #criminologicalperspectives #Mertontheoryofanomie #theoriesofcrimecausation #straintheory #socialstructuretheories #competitiveexams #css #pms #csscriminologylectures #criminologicalperspectives #theoreticalperspectivesincriminology #preindustrialsociety #organic #solidarity #structural solidarity
Merton's Theory of Anomie was presented by Robert King Merton in 1938 and again in 1954.
In his theory of Anomie, Merton applied Durkheim’s idea of Anomie with some modifications. According to Merton, two elements of culture interact to produce potentially anomic conditions:
• Culturally defined goals/Positively Valued Goals
• Socially approved means for obtaining Positively Valued Goals
Merton argues that in modern society, acquiring wealth, success, and power are positively valued goals. Everyone wants to achieve these goals because society gives respect to people with wealth, success, and Power. Socially approved means to achieve these goals include hard work, education, and thrift (prudence). These means are stratified across the cultural landscape, i.e., everyone does not have access to these means. Only rich people can avail utilized these means to get positively valued goals.
When culturally defined or positively valued goals are uniform throughout society and access to the legitimate means to achieve them is bound by class and economic status, it produces “strain” in those who are locked out of the legitimate opportunity structure. This strain leads to anomie in society. Different people resort to different social adaptions to put an end to the strain.
In an anomic society, the following are different categories of people with respect to their relations with socially defined and positively valued goals.
• Conformity & Conformists: Conformity occurs when an individual accepts conventional positively valued goals and possesses socially approved means to achieve them. The conformists desire wealth and power and can attain them through business or high-paying jobs, simply because they have money to get an education or start a business.
• Ritualism & Ritualists: Ritualists are those people who enjoy routine work and do not have the ambition to climb to the top of their profession. In other words, they rejected the established goals. For example, professors are ritualists. They earn enough to feed themselves and their families and remain happy. People under strain usually do not adopt this way because they always have high goals.
• Innovation: Innovation occurs when an individual wants to achieve socially recognized goals but rejects or is incapable of attaining them through socially approved means. Consequently, such people adopt unique or unconventional means to get socially recognized goals. These means may be legal or illegal. For example, 15 years ago, selling goods and providing services online were unconventional but legal means of earning money. Now, Selling drugs, looting banks, and hacking bank accounts, etc. are unconventional and illegal means of accumulating money. According to Merton’s Theory of Anomie, innovative people are more likely to show criminal behavior. When criminals gain conventional goals through illegitimate means, they give a message that crime pays.
• Rebellion
Rebels neither accept conventional goals nor the means to achieve them. They define their own goals and design the means to achieve them. Rebellion involves substituting an alternative set of goals and means for conventional ones. Revolutionaries who wish to promote radical change in the existing social structure and who call for an alternative lifestyle, goals, and beliefs are engaging in rebellion. They may commit crimes in the conventional sense.
• Retreatism
The subscribers of retreatism (Retreatists) reject both the culturally defined goals and the socially defined means to attain them. These people are “ in the society but not of it.” They live like symbionts on the earning of others. Some people under strain may adopt this way after their failure to achieve culturally defined goals.
According to Merton's theory of Anomie, to resolve the goals-means conflict and relieve their sense of strain, people adopt any of the above-mentioned ways. Those who decide to become innovators or rebels may commit crimes in most cases.
By acknowledging that society distributes the legitimate means to achieving success, the theory helps explain the existence of high-crime areas and the apparent predominance of delinquent and criminal behavior among the lower class. The theory suggests that social conditions, not an individual’s personality, lead one to commit a crime.
#criminology #criminologicalperspectives #Mertontheoryofanomie #theoriesofcrimecausation #straintheory #socialstructuretheories #competitiveexams #css #pms #csscriminologylectures #criminologicalperspectives #theoreticalperspectivesincriminology #preindustrialsociety #organic #solidarity #structural solidarity
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