Essay
Evaluate the contribution of strain theories to our understanding of crime and deviance.
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This essay focusses on strain theories in relation to crime and deviance for Sociology A2 AQA.
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Eve JeffersonEvaluate the contribution of strain theories to our understanding of crime and deviance.
Strain theories argue that deviance occurs when individuals cannot achieve societies goals
or when they feel pressured due to the social structures within a society. The first strain
theory was developed by Robert K Merton (a functionalist) which then led to many other
strain theories coming to the surface such as, A.K Cohens: Status Frustration theory and
Cloward and Ohlin: three subcultures theory. Considering these sociologists are all
functionalists they ignore significant issues in society and focus mainly on the working class,
they go along with the stereotype that it is only the working class who commit crimes and are
deviant when this is untrue.
However, the first strain theory by Merton contributed greatly to our understanding of crime
and deviance. He argued that individuals would often deviate when unable to achieve
success in society and in relation to Item B, an example he used to help explain this was
‘The American Dream’. During the 1930s citizens in America were expected to achieve goals
which were unrealistic and unachievable for some (the working class). This resulted in a rise
in utilitarian crimes- crimes with financial gain, and individuals felt a pressure to deviate
which Merton called ‘the strain of anomie’. Arthur Miller’s play ‘Death Of A Salesman’
highlights the issues surrounding American society in the 1930s and how lower-class
citizens found it impossible to achieve ‘money success’ and the American Dream.
Merton used his strain theory to explain some of the patterns found in society, he argued
that individuals may adapt differently to anomie depending on their position in the social
structure. There are five different types of adaptation and they are determined on whether an
individual accepts, rejects or replaces their goals and means of achieving then.
For example, innovation is when individuals accept the goal of monetary success but use
crimes such as theft or fraud, in order to achieve it. Although Merton’s ideal contributes to
the understanding of crime and deviance he does not explain why perfectly respectable
individuals who seem to be obtaining success legitimately carry out crimes such as money
laundering or white-collar crime.
On the other hand, A.K Cohen argued that deviance in societies is usually performed by
lower-class individuals. There is a general stereotype that this is always the case with those
performing crimes and this idea links well to crime documented in lower-class societies in
London. For example, gang members were grooming young children and getting them
involved with gang violence, this group of individuals were from Newham in East London,
one of the poorest boroughs in that area. There were no examples of wealthy citizens
performing crime which we could argue links ideally to Cloward and Ohlin’s idea that middle-
class deviants are often ignored within the media and authority.
Cohen also argued that lower-class citizens are most likely to deviate in order to achieve a
social status as they are unable to achieve it elsewhere, such as in the workplace or
education, this may lead to status frustration among these individuals. The people getting
involved with gangs in London may have done this to have a sense of self-worth and
importance and to also feel as if they have authority over others - as they may have been
unable to experience thisxcx due to lack of success elsewhere.
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