What Are The Anomie Theory

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For response paper number two, I am going to write about several criminological theories. These theories include the anomie, strain, labeling, and social control theories of a crime. Throughout the paper, I will explain what each theory is arguing, while also including its strengths and weaknesses. I will then choose which theory I think explains crime the best. The first theory I will introduce is the anomie theory. This theory challenges biologically based theories by arguing that our internal drives and motives are not impacted in crime, instead crime is motivated by society. Basically, anomie theory eliminates the idea of being born as a criminal based on genetics. To go more in depth, anomie theory suggests that crime is motivated by the “American …show more content…

According to Messner, an important development in the study has been the call for a reconceptualization of the occurrence of poverty. “The notion of poverty has been associated with subsistence levels of economic resources” (Messner, pg. 103). People are poor, when their incomes are so low that they are unable to purchase necessary items for a healthy life. “Poverty from this perspective represents deprivation relative to a fixed standard of physiological well-being leading to the notion” that one must commit crime to survive from poverty (Messner, pg. 103). According to Travis Hirschi, one of its weaknesses stems from its inability to explain conformity to commit crimes. Also, based off of this information, it assumes a common culture in the U.S. that money is the key to life which is definitely not the case for everyone. On the other hand, it can be concluded that the strengths of the anomie theory, specifically Merton’s explanation which states that the theory of anomie has the ability to explain higher crime rates among disadvantaged areas while also explaining how cultural norms create conflict and crime. Furthermore,

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