Examine strain theories as an explanation of crime and deviance in contemporary society

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Examine strain theories as an explanation of crime and deviance in contemporary society.

Within sociology, there are many theories to why people commit crimes or deviance acts, and many have fallen out of favour as society has adapted, and more research has been done on the subject. One theory is Strain Theory, developed by Merton in the 1930s which suggests that people commit crime because they become disillusioned by society and its approved set goals which they cannot achieve through legitimate means, so they to turn to illegitimate means. There are five different forms of behaviour that Merton pointed out was a strain between goals and means, conformity, where people adhere to both goals and means, innovation, where the goals are accepted but a different way is used to achieve them, ritualism, where the means are used but the goals are lost, retreatism, where both the goals and means are rejected, and finally rebellion, where different goals and means a substituted for societies approved ones. However, Merton was criticised by sociologists such as Valler for his stress on the existence of common goals in society. Valler argues that there are a variety of goals that people strive to attain