Reviewing Structural theory and Social process theory - Essay Example

Due to social pressures, it becomes so important for the individual to achieve the desired status that he/she might ignore the righteous means of achieving the objective and adopt some wrongful methods. Another example can be very poor law enforcement or too many loopholes in the legal system that encourages individuals to commit crime. Social process theories focus on how an individual becomes a criminal. Now as one can see that the impact of structural theories should be on the entire society because all the people live in the same social environment.

Still all of them don’t become criminals. Therefore, in addition to the Structural theories, which put forth a broader perspective, there are definitely some more factors that cause a criminal behavior. When social process theories come into the picture, all the pieces of the jigsaw start falling in place. For example, while explaining different crime rates among higher and lower classes, Merton posited existence of two social structures- as per the culture, objectives and ambitions generally considered ‘standards’ for an individual, which include material and non-material objects.

The second one is acceptable methods of achieving own goals that includes following the law, using honest means to pursue the goals etc. (Merton 1938) To maintain the social norms, a balance between the two structures is very much desired. According to Merton (1938), in case of an individual, this balance would occur when he/she has the satisfaction of following the set social norms and deriving the aimed objectives. If the culturally set goals are not realistic i.e. achievable through accepted methods, then wrong means can be employed by the individual to appear successful.

Then more stress is placed on the goal rather than the means of achieving them. For some individuals, scarcity of opportunities prompts them to use wrongful means. In a materialistic