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Robert Merton Anomie Theory
Robert Merton Anomie Theory
Robert Merton Anomie Theory
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The film City of God is based in the slums of Brazil , also called “favelas” where crime and delinquency dominate the neighborhood. The main characters of the film exhibit deviant behaviors in which different theories can be applied to explain their actions. The four theories best used to explain this behavior are concentric zone, social strain, differential association , and social bond theory. The group of characters come from a poor and crime infested neighborhood called the City of God. The characters of discussion are Lil’ Ze, Benny, Rocket, Knockout Ned, and Carrot which are the main players throughout the film. The types of criminal behavior conducted in the neighborhood are theft, murder, drug dealing, and rape. The Concentric zone …show more content…
The social strain theory also known as Anomie theory was developed by Robert K. Merton, who stated that social structures mainly influence individuals to commit crimes. Anomie is a state of dissatisfaction illustrated by the possible discrepancies between culturally defined goals and the institutionalized means available to achieve these goals ( Thompson 148). Merton proposal was based on a person 's motivations to cultural goal, and a person 's belief in how to attain his goals. Merton observed that many internalize the culturally approved goal of “getting ahead” which means high social status and money. For example, in the film Lil’Ze is constantly seeking power and money throughout the film. He strives to be the most powerful criminal seeking wealth and fame. He becomes frustrated with his low-status and lack of opportunity and seeks another a way of poverty. Carrot, another character in the film is known to of obtained this goal of wealth and status in the City of God. Carrot is a drug dealer with nice clothes, jewelry and car. Lil’ Ze and Benny idealized his lifestyle and discuss how they start to deal drugs to achieve their goals. Merton discusses that some people , particularly those disadvantaged lower class unhappily realize that they will not be able to achieve those idealized goals through legitimate means. As a result, the resort to illegitimate means to reach …show more content…
Travis Hirschi developed the social bonding theory that explains why some juveniles do not violate the law. The two characters whom exhibit this initial behavior are Rocket and Knockout Ned in the early stages of the film. The social bond according to Hirishi is established in early childhood through a natural attachment to parents, peers, teachers, and others who manifest and model the expected normal behaviors. As a result, if the social bond is firmly intact for an individual there will be no pattern of delinquent behavior. For instance, Rocket has a strong positive social bond with his family and peers which results in him not participating in delinquency. Knockout Ned is another example of a strong attachment to his parents and peers that allows him to stray away from a criminal path. Conversely, Hirshi states that if the social bond is weakened or absent, juvenile delinquency can be expected. Knockout Ned loses that strong social bond when he experiences the tragedy of losing his brother, uncle, and the rape of his girlfriend by Lil’Ze. This theory explains how Knockout Ned transitioned from normally acceptable behavior to becoming a delinquent. In response Knockout Ned turns to Carrots gang to seek revenge against Lil’ Ze. In relation Lil’ Ze experiences the death of his strongest social bond Benny whom balanced Lil’Ze and was his only social attachment. After losing Benny
Merton recognised that individuals receive messages from society, which set acceptable behaviours to follow. He noted that a majority of citizens abide the acceptable behaviours, though there are numerous pressures that associate with the American Dream and the importance of the economy, which leads individuals to participate in deviant behaviours. Merton associated criminality and deviance with the American Dream goals, and how people attempt to achieve them, particularly the wealth component (Murphy & Robertson, 2008). Merton argued in 1938 that within unbalanced societies, the discrepancy between success goals and the endorsement of the means to achieve the goals, combined with limited opportunities manufactured the state of anomie. Further, Merton suggested that the anomic conditions in society were likely to tempt strain upon individuals, forming criminal behaviour adaptations. Particularly, the strain theory emphasised that those with high monetary aspirations are likely to innovate, resorting to unlawful activities, with the desire to channel success (Antonaccio, Gostjev & Smith, 2014). The strain theory connects to social causes, linking criminality with selfishness and egoism as the desire to
Boyz N the Hood is a classic film for African American culture and depicts juvenile delinquency in the tough streets of L.A. They can relate all too well to the situations these three best friends went through. To apply this movie to the life-course perspective and strain theories we have to analyze these three boy’s realities from a structural, social and cultural level to determine why they ended up deviant and they way they started off. Sampson and Laub’s theory was, criminal activity as well as elements preventative of crime, change throughout the life-course. While all of the criminals have some form of a shared beginning. While Merton’s strain theories revolve around five different types, that puts people into certain categories; conformity,
The four parts in Travis Hirschi’s theory are attachment (“being connected with those around you”), belief (“sharing values with those with whom you associate and care about”), commitment (“a desire and understanding that abiding by the norms and values of society are the right way to het where you want to go”) and involvement (being involved “or other forms of interactions that reinforce beliefs and behaviors”). The reason why this theory goes with the documentary is because the people who join gangs lack some or all the factors that according to this theory prevent crime involvement. Some examples include when it is mention how most the teenagers who join are always left alone because their parents work. Instead of relying on their parents, they seek affection and sense of belonging somewhere else. Apart from that, the belief and commitment part of this theory comes into play when the members share their belief of wanting to protect their turf from their enemy gang rival and reinforcing their limit lines. Meaning they avoid crossing their “turf’s” dividing line into enemy territory. Lastly, the lack of involvement is seen as they –the people who became gang members— are not involve in healthy activities such as volunteer programs/ clubs and instead are attracted to the gang
Anomie is characterized as a feeling of normlessness. This results from a breakdown of social norms and without these norms to guide an individual they are unable to find a place in society or adjust to the constant changes in life. The consequence becomes the individual feeling a sense of dissatisfaction, frustration, conflict and ultimately deviance. Robert Merton addresses the five ways in which individual adapts to strain by limiting the socially approved goals and means. These five modes of adaptation include conforming, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. In Falling Down different characters can be linked to one or more of these five adaptations.
The social deviance anomie theory also known as strain theory is defined as means to an end. This means that if the goals that society holds for people are unreachable individuals may turn to illegitimate ways of getting there. Throughout this paper I will provide details as to why we should use anomie theory when defining deviance among brothel workers presented in Brothel Mustang Ranch and its Women written by Alexa Albert.
This can be applied to American society, where the society may lean too heavily towards either of these social structures. This can then create stress where stressing over goals mean that any form of achieving them becomes acceptable. Merton was more interested on the overemphasis on goals and how that may have generated antisocial behavior. This behavior arises when the expectation that all members of society should exhibit success but run into restrictions on legitimate means to succeed. He says that the cult of success can create illegitimate means because the violator knows the rules of the game, but the validation of success outweighs the weak imperative to play by the rules. He states, “…Crime… [And] the entire catalogue of proscribed behavior, becomes increasingly common when the emphasis on the culturally induced success-goal becomes divorced from a coordinated institutional emphasis” (Merton 675-676). This is shown in the Crips and Bloods documentary because the individuals in both gangs know what they do is wrong, such as dealing drugs, but they still need to be successful by having money and having good appearance by dressing nicely. It is difficult for them to go by the rules when at one point, the whites did not give them
For this assignment I decided to read the book Code of the Street: decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city by Elijah Anderson. This book is about how inner city people live and try and survive by living with the code of the streets. The code of the streets is basically morals and values that these people have. Most of the time it is the way they need to act to survive. Continuing on within this book review I am going to discuss the main points and arguments that Anderson portrays within the book. The main points that the book has, goes along with the chapters. These points consist of Street and decent families, respect, drugs violence, street crime, decent daddy, the mating game, black inner city grandmother. Now within these points there are a few main arguments that I would like to point out. The first argument is the belief that you will need to accept the street code to get through life. The other one is the belief that people on the street need “juice”. For the rest of this paper we will be looking at each one of main points and arguments by going through each chapter and discussing it.
Strain theory suggests that crime is a result of people’s goals and the means available to achieve them. Nino Brown’s ultimate goal is to obtain the American Dream which means having a lot of money. It is implied in his criminal behavior that he does not view the legitimate means as a way of achieving that goal. As a man who is undereducated and Black, the normal means of achieving the American Dream are pail in comparison to the illegal means. In fact, he sees the illegal means as more effective; this is the Anomie. The Anomie theory holds that socially defined goals are mandated, but the means to achieve them are stratified by class and society. The Cash Money Brothers program The Carter is built on a culture of poverty that has developed abnormally as a result of crack cocaine, and crime becomes the answer as a result of a breakdown in family, school, and employment. The Social Disorganization theory, in New Jack City, would mean that the criminal behavior demonstrated by the Cash Money Brothers is direct result of a serious degradation in the quality of capable guardians, the school system, and the absence of legitimate jobs stemming from Raegonomics. Therefore, the drive for material wealth dominates and undermines social and community values, thereby, providing room for criminal behavior to become more appealing and effective
Differential association theory states that, “[P]eople who associate with some groups learn an ‘excess’ of definitions of deviance, increasing the likelihood that they will become deviant.” (Henslin) To put it in layman’s terms: “Tell me who you hang out with and I’ll tell you who you are.” The first example of differential association theory can be seen at the beginning of the film when the boys encounter the “gangsters” near the dead body. There are many factors that could have contributed to their unification as a group. It can range anywhere from age similarities to the fact that they live in the same neighborhood. What ever it may have been this group of men now share common deviant behaviors that are associated with gang affiliations. The following example of differential association theory deals with Ice Cube’s character “Doughboy.” As the years went by and the boys grew up “Doughboy” did not really amount to anything and began to hang out with the wrong crowd. They presented with deviant behavior that society tends to frown upon such as them not going to school, drinking and hanging out with the wrong crowds, gambling, selling drugs, etcetera. This crowd was very similar to the gangsters he and his friends encountered at the beginning of the film. Lastly, due to his relationship ...
Just as the Olympics were held in Brazil, we heard on the news the constant increase of violence in children, and the even higher increment in the organized crime events in this country. But few of us understand the cold, horrific, and the traumatic experience of living surrounded by violent children in organized crime gangs, as well as the characters of City of God. The director of the movie Fernando Meirelles purposely shows us the way in which young children in Brazil learn to become violent at a young age, eventually still young get involved in organized crime gangs and their drug business, as well as in the gangs’ battles over territory and power. The director succeeded in presenting his point of view by using a different variety of movie
General Strain Theory was reinvented by Robert Agnew in 1992 and contributed a new perception to the present strain theory that was popularized a couple eras ago (Agnew, 1992). Classic strain theory is connected; first with Merton’s (1938), Cohen’s (1955) and Cloward and Ohlin’s (1960). Founded on Durkheim’s theory of anomie (1893), Merton industrialized his theory of deviancy inside a societal fundamental context. Merton’s interpretation on the topic is that goal-expectation inconsistencies, composed with social stratification generates strain between underprivileged societies in turn leading them to use any means necessary, such as criminal, in order to accomplish socially defined goals (Merton, 1938). Merton specified that deviance was a
In ‘City of God’, Meirelles is attempting to highlight the issues surrounding life in the favelas and the impact that poverty and crime is having on individuals, and ultimately the country as a whole, through his use of themes such as poverty. Similarly, Kassovitz is attempting to highlight the social division between authoritarian
Within the case study, it was about a young man that chose to take drugs over the love of his family. Junior was given an ultimatum by his wife; he could either be a full time father without the use of drugs, or he could be a part time father and continue to feed his addiction even more. In order to feed his addiction, Junior would steal things and cash them in to get the money for his drugs. Finally, one day Junior was caught coming out of one of the stores with merchandise that he did not pay for. As a repercussion, he was faced with jail time or an alternative to go to counseling for his drug problem. He chose to go to the rehabilitation center, but didn’t last a short three weeks there. I believe that this perspective of the movie closely correlates to the Anomie/Strain theory.
Both films represent the conflict between the poor and powerful through institutions overpowering the individual in the urban environment. This is clear in City of God, as the police are prejudiced
Strain theories of criminal behaviour have been amongst the most important and influential in the field of criminology. Taking a societal approach, strain theories have sought to explain deficiencies in social structure that lead individuals to commit crime (Williams and McShane 2010). Strain theories operate under the premise that there is a societal consensus of values, beliefs, and goals with legitimate methods for achieving success. When individuals are denied access to legitimate methods for achieving success, the result is anomie or social strain. This often leads an individual to resort to deviant or criminal means to obtain the level of success that they are socialized to pursue. This is the basic premise of strain theory. This paper will explore the evolution of strain theories by first examining their intellectual foundations which laid the foundation for Robert Merton’s theories of anomie and strain. Merton’s strain theory will be discussed in detail including the modes of adaptation that people use when faced with societal strain. Finally, the paper will conclude with the strengths and weaknesses of Merton’s strain theory and an examination of the criminological theories and social policies it has influenced.