Anomie and Strain Theory

By

Karen Michelle Collins

Anomie theory provides an explanation of the concentration of crime. The theory leans heavily on the work of one of several founders of sociology, Emile Durkheim, who used the term anomie to describe the lack of social regulation in modern societies as one manner that could elevate higher suicide rates. Robert Merton, a criminologist that applied Durkheim’s definition of anomie to modern industrial societies with emphasis towards the United States, specifically, redefined the term. According to Merton, anomie is the form that societal incoherence takes when there is a significant detachment “between valued cultural ends and legitimate societal means to those ends” (Akers, 2000, p. 143, 161). Anomie can be separated into two specific categories: macroside and microside. The former is caused when society fails to establish clear limits on goals and is unable to regulate the conduct of members in the society. The latter, more commonly referred to as strain, stresses its attention towards the breakdown of society and the increase in deviance associated with this declining change that produces a stronger pressure among members of society to commit crimes (Calhoun, 2003).

Strain is the pressure on disadvantaged minority groups and the lower urban populous to take advantage of any effective available means to income and success that they can find even if these means are illegal (Akers, 2000, p. 144). In his 1897, publication, Suicide, Durkheim classified strain into two basic categories: social processes and personal experiences. These in turn produced two general types of strain: structural and individual. Social processes create the environment necessary for the evolvement of structural strain and personal experiences cause individual strain. Structural strain applies to members of society who determine their needs based on the ideals of society and are in a constant struggle to meet those expectations. Individual strain is the personally created stress applied by the individual while searching for a means of meeting their needs that are defined by their personal expectations that they hold of themselves (O’Connor, 2003). According to General Strain Theory, as aspirations increase and expectations decline, delinquency and the amount of deviant acts that occur increases in effect to these changes. Merton recognized certain expectations created by the two general types of strain and identified five specific “modes of adaptation” to these strains (Akers, 2000, p. 144). Within the social psychology field, Robert Agnew identified three more major sources of strain in addition to those defined by Durkheim and Merton (Akers, 2000, p. 159).

Background Information Concerning Emile Durkheim

French Sociologist, Emile Durkheim, was born in Epinal, France in 1858. He studied in Paris, France, at the Ecole Normale Superieure. Afterwards, he would teach sociology at the University of Bordeaux and at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. His famous works about sociological concepts such as anomie and strain include The Division of Labor in 1893, and The Rules of Sociological Method in 1895. After studying thousands of cases of suicides, Durkheim was able to conclude that people commit the self-inflicted act due to influences pressured onto them by society. His research evolved two categories of strain to define this type of influence, which was published in Suicide. He died in 1917, of natural causes.

Background Information Concerning Robert Merton

Named at his birth on July 4, 1910, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as Meyer Schkolnick, he would change his name to Robert King Merton once he was awarded a scholarship to Temple University to accommodate his dire need to have the name of a scholar rather than one given by immigrant parents of Jewish descent. The initial idea for his new identity was actually a revision to his stage name, Robert Merlin, that he used when he performed magic shows during his teenage years. After earning his baccalaureates degree in 1936, he moved to Harvard to teach; however he left in 1939. Merton returned to the field of academia in 1941, at Columbia University where he would remain a member of the faculty until 1979.

He published innumerable works that have aided both graduates and fellow sociologists both then and now. His publications broadened the realms of sociology and helped develop new genres of study within the field such as crime and deviance related research. His most famous writings were Social Theory And Social Structure and On The Shoulders of Giants. The former was first published in 1949, but it was revised in 1957, and 1968. The latter was published in 1965. The organization of all his works was extremely precise and included his personally created and forever remembered phrases such as "role model and “self-fulfilling prophecy." Merton died on February 23, 2003, at the age of ninety-two, but the Anomie Theory that he outlined and researched will continue to develop new advances in sociology and criminology (Calhoun, 2003).

Background Information Concerning Robert Agnew

Robert Agnew was born on December 1, 1953, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Majoring in sociology throughout his years as a college student, he graduated from Rutgers College of New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1975, with his baccalaureates and later continued his studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he acquired his masters in 1978. Since receiving his Ph.D. in 1980, Agnew has further developed and researched the ideas that he presented in his dissertation, "A Revised Strain Theory of Delinquency" at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is a professor. Throughout his career in sociology, Agnew has continued to write various articles about the numerous advancements in Strain Theory. Two of several of his works that have been published in the Journal of Research of Crime and Delinquency are "Why Do They Do It: An Examination of the Intervening Mechanisms Between 'Social Control' Variables and Delinquency" and "Gender and Strain: A General Strain Theory Perspective” (Agnew, 1997).

Merton’s Five “Modes of Adaptation”

Conformity

Merton recognizes conformity as the most common type of the five modes. During this mode, people strive to obtain success by the most pure conventional means available (Akers, 2000, p. 144).

Innovation

During innovation, Merton identifies a miniscule, but substantial change in the perspective of the people whose mode is still in conformity and that of whom has shifted to innovation. The people continue to seek success; however by innovation they strive to obtain the success by taking advantage of illegal goals available to them in place of less promising conventional means in order to attain success (Akers, p. 144-5).

Rebellion

Merton suggests that by the time people reach the mode of rebellion, they have completely rejected the story that everybody in society can achieve success and have loomed into a rebellious state. They neither trust the valued cultural ends nor the legitimate societal means used to reach success. Instead, these people replace such ideas with irrational objectives to include the violent overthrow of the system altogether (Akers, 2000, p. 144).

Retreatism

Identified by Merton as the escapist response of the five modes, retreatism occurs when people become practically dropouts of society. They give up all goals and efforts to achieve success because they view it as an impractical, impossible, almost imaginary, and irrational possibility. Merton attributes this mode as the one to which drug addicts, alcoholics, vagrants, and the severely mental ill function because their reactions to not being able to obtain success by legitimate means represses them from society (Akers, 2000, p. 144).

Ritualism

During ritualism, the final mode, people realize that they have no real opportunity to advance in society and accept the little relevance that they have. It is in this mode that people concentrate on retaining what little they possibly gained or still have in place of concentrating on a higher yield of success. They return to adhering to conventional norms in hopes of maintaining the few possessions or possible gains that they have attained. For many members of the urban lower socioeconomic populous and disadvantaged minorities this period of short-lived and slightly increased gains takes nearly a lifetime to obtain and to recognize its worth in a modern industrial society (Akers, 2000, p. 144).

Agnew’s Three Major Types of “Deviance-Producing Strain”

Failure to Achieve Positively Valued Goals

The first of the three major types, the failure to achieve positively valued goals, is subdivided into three further categories. These are the traditional concept, the gap between expectations and actual achievements, and the difference between the view of what a person believes the outcome should be and what actually results. Under the first subcategory, Agnew includes personal goals that are both long term and immediate. In addition, he adds the personal realization that some of the set goals will never become true because of certain circumstances that are unavoidable in life, which include individual weaknesses and blocked opportunities. The second subtype continues to increase personal disappointment and the final subtype encourages the person to stop desiring to put as much effort into relationships (Akers, 2000, p. 159).

Removal of Positively Valued Stimuli

The next major type of “deviance-producing strain” identified by Agnew occurs primarily during adolescents when a dramatic change or loss happens. Examples of this type include experiencing the stressful impact felt before and after moving and when a death or serious illness befalls a family – to include close friends or other individuals that have close ties to the person (Akers, 2000, p. 159).

Confrontation with Negative Stimuli

The last major type of “deviance-producing strain” also applies most to adolescents than any other age group. Usually the individual is forced to remain among negative actions that through an anger-induced response create deviant behavior. Examples of negative inescapable stimuli include peer pressure and child abuse (Akers, 2000, p. 159).
Conclusions

The Anomie Theory that Merton had introduced quickly gained support and acceptance by criminologists and sociologists who further researched and developed his theory. By the 1950s, the Anomie Theory was widely being applied to delinquency in many different types of subcultures (Akers, 2000, p. 145). However, during the late 1960s and early 1970s, the theory lost some of its credibility because some sociologists found Merton’s research as well as the studies of several others lacking in empirical validity. This so-called slump in the theory was short-lived to a great extent as he and other sociologists devoted to researching the anomie and strain theories made outstanding advancements shortly there after. By 1992, Robert Agnew and his co-researcher and co-writer, Helene Raskin White, produced empirical evidence that suggested that the general strain theory has positively been able to relate delinquents and drug users. They further concluded by the use of this theory that the strongest effect on the delinquents studied was the delinquency of their peers (Akers, 2000, p. 160).

The Anomie Strain Theory has progressed steadily in the field of criminology since its beginning. First, Durkheim defined the term anomie to explain phenomena in the sociological field. Then, Merton narrowed the definition of anomie to describe ideas based on societal incoherence. His research tested in the 1950s-60s to explain this approach provoked many debates over the issue. Later, research performed by Agnew and others led to further developments of Merton’s original theory. Today, the Anomie Strain Theory continues to attract attention and support as the empirical evidence acquired from constant testing and research increases its empirical validity.

References

Agnew, R. (1997, August). Robert Agnew. VITAE. Retrieved March 10, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://www.emory.edu/SOC/bagnew/cv_agnew.html
Akers, R. (2000). Criminological Theories: Introduction, Evaluation, and Application. Los Angeles: Roxbury. 139-188.
Calhoun, C. (2003, March 3). Giant figure of American sociology who influenced the study of bureaucracy, crime, science and society. Robert Merton. Retrieved March 10, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
O’Connor, T. (2003). Varieties of Strain Theory. Retrieved April 1, 2003 from the World Wide Web: http://www.homestead.com/rouncefield/files/a_soc_dev_19.htm
Behler, D. (1995). World Book Encyclopedia. (Vol. 5). Chicago: World Book.

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