The Theory Of Crime Theory - 1329 Words

Probably the single most influential and certainly the best-known crime theory among all the sociological theories of crime is that of strain theory. Strain theories argue that there are certain socially generated pressures or forces that drive people to commit crimes. More specifically, the classic strain theories argue that people, particularly those of lower class status are pressured into crime when they are prevented from achieving cultural goals like monetary success or middle-class status through legitimate status. Among the classic strain theorists the best known is Robert K. Merton. Merton rejected the notion still popular at the time of his writing that deviant motivations were rooted in the biology or psychology of the†¦show more content†¦These individuals are then compelled to outside of the norms in their effort to achieve the culturally defined desired ends. In other words, prevented by lack of skills, education, lower social status, or even discrimination from achieving the socially defined goals such as tangible material success, these individuals are pressured into crime which emerges as the only way to achieve those goals. In other words, Merton theorized the that the absence of a rigid class structure in the U.S., and the compellingly widespread belief that all Americans, regardless of their present status in life, had the opportunity to amass material worth, coupled with the dominant aspirational reference of wealth, put incredible pressure (strain) on those who encountered real barriers as they moved towards those universal goals to find some way even if it was illegal or deviant to obtain what they were led to believe were the important goals. On the other hand, a poor person in a society which had rigid class structures would not feel the same pressure to commit illegal acts since he would an aspirational reference more suitable to his current stature. In their work, Delinquency and Opportunity, Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin drew on strain theory and Cohen’s subculture theory to help explain the development of delinquent subcultures. Cloward Ohlin argued that deviance ordinarily repres ents a search for solutions to problems of