Question

Sociology

Apply at least two theories discussed in Module 24 (Morton theory of daviance,Social disorganization theory etc) to the problem of professional crime. Which theory seems to provide the best explanation?

Answer 1

Robert Merton’s strain theory of social deviance is a popular theory of crime which was developed in order to address the increasing rate of crime in the United States in the 1940s. According to Merton, individuals who repeatedly experience a frustration in the achievement of their goals and opportunities for development if d themselves in situations which make them more prone to respond in a reactionary way to the state of disorder or what he called ‘anomie’. The larger cultural ideal of the ‘American Dream’ or the expectation that everyone has an equal opportunity to achieve economic progress, is put to challenge and some communities and groups find themselves amidst a politics of inequality and no representation in the collective identity. In the face of such a a situation, certain individuals assume a rebellious and nonconformist standpoint and they are more prone to engage in criminal behaviour and other actions which may go against the mainstream cultural goals.

However, Merton’s theory is only one of the array of approaches to understanding the nature of crime in current societies. The social disorganisation view of crime is another theory which extends that an individual’s predisposition towards crime is related to the structural organisation of his/her neighbourhood or surroundings. In other words, crime is a direct manifestation of one’s geographical location. Thus theory draws its evidence from the correlational studies and surveys of high rates of crime in the ghettos or the low quarters in the cities which are homes to economic minorities, immigrant populations and home to the largest proportion of urban poor. However, this view is criticised on the grounds that it leads to stereotyping of certain minority communities and increase the divide between the vulnerable sections and the mainstream ‘elite’ groups.

Thus, off the two theories mentioned above, Merton’s theory gives a substantially rich explanation of both the emergence and growth of crimes and it also gives an instructive framework for combatting the problem as it lays down the causal links between crimes and present social malaise at the larger administrative level.