To what extent is Robert Merton's theory of 'anomie' helpful in understanding crime in contemporary society?

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To what extent is Robert Merton’s theory of ‘anomie’ helpful in understanding crime in contemporary society?

It is rightfully argued that crime, whether or not in a contemporary society, is an

extremely complex and multi-faceted Phenomena that has puzzled academics for

many years. Theories that aim to rationalise the causes of crime and understand the

origin of criminal behaviour are often criticised for being too biased or deterministic

in their research studies. Many have been of great influence and seen to explain (to an

extent) the cause of crime but none has fully decoded the mystery of why people

commit crime. Merton’s anomie theory aimed at explaining deviance from a

sociological perspective as opposed to previous academic theories on crime and

criminals.

The first well known study of crime and criminals is that of one who is often referred

to as the ‘father of criminology’, Cesar Lombroso.

Lombroso’s argument was based around the Darwinian theory of human evolution

and his theory argued that criminals were a throw back to an earlier period of human

progression. In other words, they were less evolved humans, with visible physical

features such as large ears and big lips. His theory suggested that criminals were born

and not made therefore, where genetically prone to criminality.

Merton’s argument was to the contrary. Rather than observing the individual criminal

as being subhuman, he questioned societies influence on the individual. In his 1968

book, Merton argued that ‘it no longer appears to be so obvious that man is set against

society in an unceasing war between biological impulse and social restraint. The

image of man as an untamed bundle of impulses begins to look like a caricature rather

than a portrait.

Sociological theories on crime and deviance, have always disagreed with the idea of  

biology being the cause of societies problems and thus, would rather emphasize the

influence of external societal factors on the causes of crime. Individual differences are

often disputed or ignored, and the explanation of the overall collective behaviour is

seen to correlate with the influence of institutions.

Being a sociologist, Merton’s Anomie (or strain) Theory also attempts to rationalise

and understand crime from such a social perspective.

In his theory, which, is an adaptation of Durkheim’s earlier theory of anomie, Merton

suggests that for most, deviance and criminality does not stem from ‘pathological

personalities’ but from the culture and structure of society itself.

   Merton’s strain theory is an adaptation of Durkheims earlier theory

of ‘anomie’, which described a period of 'normlessness' when the general value

consensus was lost and people didn’t know the parameters of acceptable behaviour.

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Unlike Durkheim however, Merton argued that anomie was not brought about by a

sudden social change but by a society which assigns the same goals to all its members

but affords them unequal opportunities to attain these goals.  For Merton, irrespective

of the role of biological impulses, there still remained the further question of why it is

that the frequency of deviant behaviour varies within different social structures and

how it happens that the deviations have different shapes and patterns in different

social structures.

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