Discuss Merton’s anomie theory of deviance, including the five forms of adaptati

Question

Discuss Merton’s anomie theory of deviance, including the five forms of adaptation. Do you think that society confuses certain people by misrepresenting an individual’s chances of becoming successful? Give some examples to support your answer. Considering crime rates in the United States, is there evidence in favor of Merton’s theory? In other words, does it appear that crime rates are higher among groups for whom access to cultural goals is limited? Are there groups for whom the theory does not seem to apply?

Be sure to use scholarly journals as references and cite the work in your paper, accordingly.

Explanation / Answer

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary. Also, please insert the five form of adaption typology diagram to the answer. It is common and available online.

(Answer) Merton’s anomie theory of deviance is a concept that describes when social norms conflict each other or don’t exist at all. For instance, when society expects young individuals to get a college degree, get a brilliant job and be successful but doesn’t exactly make it any easier or provide tools necessary to achieve it. This is a classic example of the anomie theory of deviance.

Merton further suggested five forms of adaption. They are conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. These 5 forms are placed strategically in a matrix. This matrix helps determine an individual’s attitude based on their acceptance or rejection of cultural goals and institutionalised means.

This theory highlights the misinterpretation between strain and societal stability. Therefore, simply using these standards of success to judge an individual becomes completely unfair and unwarranted. Society would assume that a person without a college degree is unsuccessful. However, that particular individual could be successfully supporting their family, taking up a skilled course etc. This would mean that the definition of success that society maintains is flawed simply because success is subjective. Also, society’s idea of success does not have a corresponding societal solution to achieve it.

In 2008, Reuters reported, “Of 233 police agencies surveyed by the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based law enforcement organization, 44 percent reported a rise in certain types of crime they attributed to the United States’ worst economic and financial crisis in decades.” (source: Reuters)

Considering that several individuals lost their job and were not seen as “successful” individuals of society anymore, they perhaps were driven to stealing or other petty crimes for basic needs and regaining their status. This is because in 2008, the society was completely out of solution or tools to achieve the “success” it admires.

According to Karl Marx, the proletariat of the society are individuals on whom such theories do not apply. They are the ones born with a “silver spoon.” They do not need to work all their lives simply because they are born with an admirable amount of property in their ownership. Their lives are easier and seemingly more “successful” as compared to the other classes of society. (source: communist manifesto)

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