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This 8 page paper discusses the differences between Agnew’s and Merton’s strain theories of crime. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
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8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVagnmer.rtf
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theory was first proposed in 1938 by Robert K. Merton of Harvard University. Merton noted that sociologists tended to attribute "the malfunctioning of social structure primarily to those of mans
imperious biological drives which are not adequately restrained by social control" (Merton, 1938, p. 672). For people holding this opinion, society becomes merely a device to help manage impulses and
resolve tensions in a socially acceptable way (Merton, 1938). Those impulses which cannot be controlled in this manner are then labeled as "biologically derived. Nonconformity is assumed to be rooted
in original nature" (Merton, 1938, p. 672). Conformity then, by implication, is assumed to be the result of some sort of "unreasoned conditioning," perhaps unconscious conformity with the rules of
society (Merton, 1938, p. 672). At any rate, Merton notes that attributing a biological origin to impulsive or deviant behavior begs the question: how can the nonbiological origins of such
behavior be explained? (Merton, 1938). In his paper, which is the basis of all strain theory, he argues that "certain phases of social structure generate the circumstances in which infringement
of social codes constitutes a normal response" (Merton, 1938, p. 672). That is, under certain conditions, for some individuals, crime is the normal response to social structure. Merton argues that
some social structure "exert a definite pressure upon certain persons in the society to engage in nonconformist rather than conformist conduct," and he wants to discover what these pressures are
(Merton, 1938, p. 672). He says that the answer lies in two elements of societal structure: goals and the acceptable means of achieving them (Merton, 1938). The goals are "culturally
defined" and comprise a "frame of aspirational reference"; they are "more or less integrated and involve varying degrees of prestige and sentiment" (Merton, 1938, p. 672). That is, there are
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