Merton's Strain Theory - Coursework Example

?Merton’s Strain Theory Merton’s strain theory can be categorized as one of the sociological theories that help in describing human behaviors. A sociological theory is believed to offer a set of guiding questions of key concepts explaining how societies operate and the way people in those societies relate to one another. There are various other theories found in the sociology field. One of these other theories is the functional theory that explains how parts of the society contribute in expected and unexpected ways to the social order, disorder, or instability. Another theory is the conflict theory that focuses on conflicts over scarce and valued resources and the strategies used by dominant groups to create or protect the society. Moreover, there is symbolic interaction theory that focuses on social interaction and related concepts of self-awareness reflexive thinking, symbols and negotiated order. In addition to this, there is differential association theory, which states that criminal behavior is learned and thus explaining criminals constitute a special type of conformists who conform to the norms of the group with which they associate. This structural strain theory explains that deviant behavior is a response to structural strain in which a disjuncture exists between culturally valued goals and legitimate means for achieving them. This theory considers three factors one of them being goals defined as both valuable in legitimate by all members of the society. According to Venkatesh (10) earning wealth through working was a goal defined as both valuable and legitimate by all members of the society. Moreover acquiring valuable education by the young men was also another goal that was defined as valuable and legitimate by all members of the Chicago community (Venkatesh 32). Another factor is norms that specify legitimate means of achieving those goals. Among the community of poor people of Chicago there was a norm that whatever a person is doing, he should make sure that it does not affect other people negatively (Venkatesh 34). This norm was used to distinguish between the legitimate means of achieving goals and the illegitimate ones. Another factor is the actual number of the legitimate opportunities available for achieving goals. In this community there were a limited number of legitimate opportunities for achieving goals since people had no work and were uneducated (Venkatesh 9). We can describe structural strain as any situation in which the valued goals have unclear limits, people are not certain that the legitimate means will allow them to achieve their goals and the legitimate opportunity for reaching these goals remain closed to a significant portion of the population. In such situations, the rate of deviance is expected to be very high and poverty is expected to be extremely high. Cases of structural strain is evident in almost the whole community of the poor people of the streets of Chicago and is expressed in different ways like the group leader being not sure whether working in selling office supplies and industrial textiles could enable him to achieve his goals and thus deciding to quit for the gangster life (Venkatesh 42). This theory explains that people respond in identifiable ways to structural strain and that their response involves some combination of acceptance and rejection of the valued goals and means of achieving them. These responses include conformity, innovation, ritualism, Retreats and Rebellion. Of these responses, it is only conformity, which is not a deviant. Conformity is the acceptance of cultural goals and the pursuit of those goals through legitimate means. In this case, focus is made both to the rules governing the process of achieving the goals as well as the targeted results. Conformity is seen from the strategy Venkatesh decided to use to study about the poor black people in the society. According to Venkatesh (32), the author decided to hang around gangsters so that he can understand how it felt to be poor and black. Innovation on the other hand is the acceptance of the cultural goals but rejection of the legitimate means to achieve them. In such cases, success in achieving the goals is what matters irrespective of the means used to achieve them. This involves both corporate and white-collar crimes. According to Venkatesh (40), it is evident that the crime rate in the community of poor people of Chicago was very high. These crimes included theft, drug trafficking and prostitution. In such cases, people knew that they needed to achieve wealth but decided to use these illegal means instead of working. Ritualism is the rejection of cultural goals but a rigid adherence to legitimate means of achieving these cultural goals. In this case, what matters is the means employed in pursuit of a cultural goal irrespective of whether the pursuit is successful or not. In most cases, this comes with an attitude of not aiming higher so that one does not face a disappointment and can result to desperations. Majority of people in the community of the poor people of Chicago have this kind of response that has made them not to work very hard to better their lives. According the conversation the author had with the old men of the Chicago streets, it is evident that this black people had the perspective that they can do nothing to better their lives. This is also evident from the way sociologists decide to do their sociological research about the poor people. They tend to use survey questionnaire that in most cases do not yield accurate and required result because these people are not receptive to interviews. Retreats on the other hand are the rejection of both cultural goals as well as the means of achieving them. This in most cases is revealed by presence of people like the outcasts, vagrants, vagabonds, tramps, drunks and addicts. According to Venkatesh (9), these kinds of people are evident in the society of poor people of Chicago. This people in most cases are the ones who cause the crime rates to escalate in these areas by either harassing other people or failing to relate with them well. Another response is rebellion that is the full or partial rejection of both cultural goals and means of achieving them as well as introduction of new goals and means. In most communities these is revealed by the presence of street gangs, old order Amish and revolutions for large groups. According to Venkatesh (30), this community was full of street gangs who spend most of their time selling drugs, gambling or talking about women. This street gangs also pirated electricity for the squatters, levied them and offered protection to these places. Reference Venkatesh, Sudhir. Gang Leader for a Day. New York, NY: The Penguin Press, 2008. Print. Read More