Essay: Strain Theory

Sample Essay

This is also known as the social class or the Mertonian Anomie theory. It was formulated by an American sociologist named Robert Merton who mainly used the American economic status as his platform for argument. Americans had developed a culture which filled with prospects for freedom, prosperity and opportunity which he called  the ‘American dream’. Merton used the term anomie to imply that the living standards of the people was like a dichotomous key subdivided in numerous hierachial levels that dictates what was expected from the people and what could actually be achieved by those people.

This cloud f theoretical formulations lead to a increase in juvenile crimes when certain obstructions were encountered such as unequal social status of opportunities. The society witness massive drop out from schools by the vulnerable youths with many citing this as means to enable them achieve what was expected of them by the society using alternative methods which is through criminal activities. Many youths have dropped into being gang members commonly known as hobos or drug abusers  which enables them get the much expected social status through crimes such as robbery.

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