HBSE 6: MERTON’S STRAIN THEORY
Social Deviation and Social Work
 STRAIN THEORY
 Strain theories assume people will
commit crime because of strain, stress,
or pressure. Depending on the version
of strain theory, strain can come from a
variety of origins.
 Strain theories also assume that human
beings are naturally good; bad things
happen, which “push” people into
criminal activity.
 Emile Durkheim viewed economic or
social inequality as natural and
inevitable. Furthermore, inequality and
crime were not correlated unless there
was also a breakdown of social norms.
 According to Durkheim, when there is
rapid social change (like moving from an
agrarian society to an industrial society)
social norms breakdown. There is too
much too fast, and society needs to
reevaluate normative behaviors.
 He referred to the decline of social
norms, or “normlessness,” as “anomie.”
Moreover, social forces have a role in
dictating human thought and behaviors.
 He thought anomie was an inability of
societies to control or regulate
individuals’ appetites. Although
Durkheim was interested in looking at
how societies change, other
researchers adapted his idea of anomie
 RESPONSES TO STRAIN
(Crime & Deviance)
 Merton argues that people engage in
deviant behavior when they cannot
achieve socially approved goals by
legitimate means.
This explanation combines two elements:
 Structural Factor - Society's unequal
opportunity structure
 Cultural Factor - Society's greater
emphasis on success goals over
using legitimate means to achieve
them
 Deviance is a result of the strain and
individual feel when they cannot achieve
legitimately. Merton uses the idea of
the American dream to illustrate.
The American Dream emphasizes money
and success. Americans are expected to
pursue this through legitimate means
However poverty and discrimination means
that opportunities are blocked for many
individuals The resulting strain leads people
to resort to illegitimate means instead
The pressure is increased by the culture of
success in America - Winning is important
than playing by the rule.
 CONFORMITY - Individual accept the
culturally approved goals and strive to
achieve them legitimately
 INNOVATION - Goals of success are
accepted but individual used an
illegitimate means to achieve them
 RITUALISM - Individuals give up on
achieving goals but have internalized
the means and so carry on following the
rules for their own sake
 RETREATISM - Individuals reject both
goals and legitimate means and drop
out of society .
 REBELLION - Individuals replace
existing goals and means with new ones
with the aim of bringing about social
change
--- -- Evaluation of Merton --- --
 Good side
- The theory shows how both normal
and deviant behavior can arise from
mainstream goals
- Merton’s idea explains the trend
shown in official statistics that crime
rates tend to be higher amongst the
working class as they have the least
opportunity to obtain wealth
legitimately.
- It also helps explain why most crime
in America is property crime
because material wealth is so valued
by American society.
 Bad side
- Merton has been criticized for taking
official statistics at face value.
Interactionist would argue that crime
figures are a social construct
- His theory is also too deterministic.
Not all working class people deviate
- Marxist would argue that Merton fails
to consider the power of the ruling
class to make and enforce laws
oppressing the working class.
- Merton focus on individual response
to strain. He doesn't consider the
influence of groups such as
delinquents subculture.
 DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION
THEORY
 This theory tells about crime and
criminal behavior, how people involve
in criminality and how people become
criminal.
 Edwin Hardin Sutherland
- American sociologist
- Most influencial criminologist of 20th
century
- The Dean of Criminology
- Develop D. A Theory
 Adaptation
 Learning
 Influence
 Communication
 Socialization
 Interaction
 A Theory in crime causation states that
criminal behavior is learned in interaction
with people in the process of
communication.
 It explains that people learn to become
offenders from their
 environment.
 Differential association theory says criminal
behavior is learned.
 if one associate with gangs, they will
behave like the gang members.
1. Criminal Behavior is learned, but not
inherited
2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction
and communication with the people who
are wrong.
3. The principal part of learning criminal
behavior occurs within intimate personal
group
4. Differential associations may vary in
frequency, duration, intsity and priority.
5. Criminal behavior is an expression of
general needs and values,it is not
explained by those needs and values, since
non-criminal behavior is an expression of
the same needs and values.
 SOCIAL CONTROL THEORY
Social Control Theory (social bond theory)
 Is a sociological theory developed by
Travis Hirschi in 1969.
 It is also known as social bond theory.
Under this theory, individuals break the
law due to a breakdown with their
societal bond.
 It states that individuals act in certain
ways because of the influence of society.
 Hirschi stated that the presence or lack
of effectiveness of social controls on
individuals were key infuences in their
decisions to engage in criminal activity.
 4 MAIN COMPONENTS OF SOCIAL
BONDS:
1. ATTACHMENT
- connections between individuals and
the surrounding community are
important in personal development.
- If these connections are strong enough,
individuals will not act in ways that are
disagreeable or could cause harm and
chaos.
- The absence of attachments to other
individuals means that deviant, more
worse criminal behavior will not
disappoint anyone.

2. COMMITMENT
- describes the level of dedication
invested in conventional standards and
goals. People who are committed to
something will not do anything that can
prevent them from achieving their goal.
3. INVOLVEMENT IN THE SOCIETY
- someone who is intensively involved in
conventional activities has less time and
opportunity to engage in deviant
behavior.
- Structured, socially accepted activities
such as school, work also strengthen
one’s discipline needed to resist the
impulses of deviant behavior.
4. BELIEF
- This refers to the belief in and validity of
values and norms of the society.
- The more the values and norms have
been internalized, the more it is difficult
to violate them.
- But when the meaning of the norms is
questioned, the intrinsic motivation to
obey them also decreases.
CONCLUSION
Individuals who embodies these main
components of social bonds often have a
higher level of self-control over their
actions or are ‘in control’ of their lives are
accordingly prepped to stay on the right
side of the law.
However, when one of these four
component breakdown, Hirschi
hypothesizes that an individual may then
participate or be involved in criminal
activity.
 DETERRENCE PERSPECTIVE
- Deterrence is the theory that criminal
penalties do not just punish violators,
but also discourage other people
from committing similar offenses.
- 'Deterrence is undoubtedly a
psychological phenomenon, for it
involves convincing an opponent not
to attack by threatening it with harm
in retaliation.
- The works of Beccaria, Bentham,
and Becker led to a theory of
criminal deterrence involving a three-
pronged approach in which
certainty, celerity, and severity of
punishment work together to
increase the cost of an action so that
a rational person will determine that
the cost outweighs the benefit.
3 COMPONENT OF DETERRENCE
THEORY
1. CERTAINTY
- Applies to the likelihood of being
caught.
- The threat of a severe punishment is
not effective if there is no possibility
of ever being caught
2. CELERITY
- Applies to the speed of a
consequence.
- A punishment imposed immediately
after an offense is more effective
than one that is imposed years after
the offense.
3. SEVERITY
- Of punishment is a necessary
component since a rational person
might commit a crime that brings a
benefit even if punishment is swift
and sure when the punishment is
insignificant.
- The punishment serves as an
example to others in society so that
everyone is aware that a certain
action is unacceptable.
SUMMARY
- The theory assumes more people
would commit crimes if there was no
risk of punishment, and that
increasing the risk will decrease
crime.
- Risk could be increased primarily by
increasing the penalty a person
might face or by increasing the
likelihood that a person would be
punished.
- Both components must exist, but
those that support the theory believe
that increasing the certainty of
punishment is more effective than
increasing the penalty for a violation.
 INTERACTIONIST/ LABELING
PERSPECTIVE
Interactionist Perspective
- views society as a product of everyday
social interactions of individuals.
- study how people use symbols to
create meaning.
- In studying deviance, these theorists
look at how people in everyday
situations define deviance, which
differs between cultures and settings.
Labeling Theory
- First proposed by sociologist Howard
Becker in the 1960s.
- Labeling Theory posits that deviance is
that which is so labeled.
- No status or behavior is inherently
deviant until other people have judged
it and labeled it deviant.
- Labeling theory posits that self-identity
and the behavior of individuals may be
determined or influenced by the terms
used to describe or classify them.
- It is associated with the concepts of
self- fulfilling prophecy and
stereotyping.
The IMPACT of labeling theory to a
person's life:
- The theory purports that society's
establishing someone as a criminal
based on deviant behavior (action
perceived to violate society's normal
standards) may lead others to mistreat
the person labeled as a criminal.
- In other words, individuals may face
stigma , discrimination against them
because of the criminal label.
- Labeling can lead to blocked
opportunities, such as reduced
education and instability in
employment; and, the weak
conventional ties resulting from this
lack of opportunity can create a long-
lasting effect on adult criminal
behavior.
An example of labeling could be saying that
a young man across the street is a thief
because he was seen in the company of
other young men with deviant behavior.
Even though he may not be a thief, it might
cause him to steal due to the label given to
him.
 ETHNOMETHODOLOGY
- Ethnomethodology is considered to be a
study of common and everyday
methods, of practical action and practical
reasoning. It was founded by Harold
Garfinkel, a student of American
sociologist, Talcott Parsons, in the 1950s
and 1960s.
- Ethnomethodology is the study of folk or
common sense methods used by people
to make sense of everyday activities by
constructing and maintaining social
reality.
- Ethnomethodology thus represents a
very simple idea. If one assumes, as
Garfinkel does, that the meaningful,
patterned, and orderly character of
everyday life is something that people
must work constantly to achieve, then
one must also assume that they have
some methods for doing so.
- A reality that members’ accounts are
- Nothing has a fixed meaning and
Social Order
- For Parson, social order is achieved
through socialization into a shared
value system in line in his top-down
structural approach.
- Garfinkel on the other hand believes
the opposite. People create social order
from the bottom up. People actively
construct social order to the everyday
lives using common sense knowledge.
- Ethnomethodology is interested in how
we do this and it studies the methods
people use to understand the world.
Breaching Experiment
- An experiment that seeks to examine
people’s reaction to violations of
commonly accepted social rules or
norms.
- The normal course of interaction is
purposefully interrupted, disrupting
temporarily the world that individuals
take for granted and see how they
react.
CONCEPTS OF ETHNOMETHODOLOGY
 Indexicality
linked to a particular context.
everything is dependent upon context.
 Reflexivity
- Meanings are not set, that is how we
communicate. Our common sense
knowledge allows us to understand
meanings within situations, which is
similar to the idea of typifications.
 Accounts
- One of Garfinkel’s key points about
people’s routine methods is that they are
“reflexively accountable”
- Are the ways in which actors explain
(describe, criticize, and idealize) specific
situations.
Accounting is the process by which people
offer accounts in order to make sense of the
world.
Documentary Method
- Documentary method of Interpretation
consists of treating an actual appearance
as the document of, or as pointing to, a
presupposed underlying pattern.
- Finding hidden pattern
- There is a relationship between individual
documentary evidence and what is known
  GENDER PERSPECTIVE the views and ideas of both women and men membership in the social group of
- The gender perspective focuses are taken seriously; consider the implications women or men
particularly on gender-based differences of decisions on the situation of women
in status and power, and considers how relative to men; and take actions to address FEMININE
such discrimination shapes the immediate inequalities or imbalance between women  Not aggressive
needs, as well as the long-term and men.  Emotional
interests, of women and men.   Dependent
- Taking a gender perspective is a strategy Gender Awareness  sensitive
for making women’s as well as men’s - Gender awareness is the “ability to  Easily influenced
concerns and experiences an integral view society from the perspective of
 Verbal
dimension of the design, implementation, gender roles and how this has
 Submissive
monitoring and evaluation of policies and affected women's needs in
 Nurturing
programs in all political, economic and comparison to the needs of men”
 Easily hurt emotionally
societal spheres, so that women and men Thus, gender awareness aims
toward better health for men and  Kind
benefit equally and inequality is not
women.  Home oriented
perpetuated.
 Home oriented
Socializing Agents  Weak
Gender Sensitivity
• Institutions that shape an individual’s  Talkative
- Is to understand and give consideration to
personality, character, skills, norms, MASCULINE
socio-cultural norms and discriminations
those which dictate one’s role in - Aggressive - Not talkative
in order to acknowledge the different
society. - Independent - Tough
rights, roles & responsibilities of women
• Family - Dominant - Cruel
and men in the community and the
• School - Decisive - Analytical
relationships between them.
• Church - Logical - Not easily hurt
• Peers - Strong - Blunt
• Mass Media - Active - Not nurturing
- Gender sensitive policy, • State
program, administrative and financial Gender Stereotyping
activities, organizational procedures will: - The practice of ascribing to an
differentiate between the capacities, needs individual woman or man specific
and priorities of women and men; ensure that attributes, characteristics, or roles by
reason only of her or his
 EFFECTS GENDER BIAS ON WOMEN
 MARGINALIZATION
 Forces women into the periphery of
economic and social life and of the
decision-making process; diminishes
value of women’s activities through which
they contribute to the national
development process.
 SUBORDANATION
 One sex becoming inferior to the other.
Gender subordination is the
institutionalized domination by men of
women (or vice versa). Subordination is a
power relationship. Power has four
categories: power over, power over,
power to, power with, and power within.
 MULTIPLE BURDEN
 The involvement in the three spheres of
work—reproductive, productive, and
community management and governance.
A person’s involvement in any of these
spheres, sometimes too much and
sometimes unwillingly, lessens her or his
time for herself or himself, and for the
things that she or he really wants to do.
EFFECTS GENDER BIAS ON MEN
• Traditional stereotypes are difficult for many
men to live up to. They feel pressure to be
a ‘real man’, to be physically and
emotionally strong, and be the main
income earner.
• Many workplaces don’t offer men extended
parental leave or flexible hours.
• Men are more likely to drink too much, take
unhealthy risks and engage in violence.
• They are less likely to seek professional
help or talk about their problems with
friends or family.
• Men are more likely to commit suicide.
MEN AND MASCULINES APPROACH
 A “men and masculinities” approach to
promoting equality between the sexes
focuses on how to address the male side
of gender equality including the ways
gender roles and stereotypes affect men
and boys' identities, behaviors and
expected roles and responsibilities.
GENDER ISSUES
Reproductive Works
- This includes child bearing, rearing, and
care for family members such as children,
elderly, and workers. these task are done
mostly by women.
Productive Works
- Activities carried out by men and women
in order to produce goods and service
either for sale, exchange, or meet the
subsistence of the family.
Practical Gender Needs
- Refers to what women or men perceive as
immediate necessities.
Girls Education
- Since the early 21st century, girls’ access
to education has leaped forward around the
world. While girls’ learning outcomes are
improving faster than boys’, almost two
thirds of illiterate adults in the world are
women, and three quarters of children who
are likely never to go to primary school are
girls.
WOMEN IN DEVELOPMENT (WID)
The WID approach helped to ensure, the
integration of women into the workforce and
increase their level of productivity in order
to improve their lives. However some have
criticized this approach as being very
western. Since it is a perception of the
global south from global north perspective,
as it fails to acknowledge the collective and
cultural concerns of women in the
developing world. It approach has been
tagged as being rather cumbersome on
women, as it fails to understand the
dynamics of the private sphere but focus
solely on the public sphere.  equal rights and opportunities. It's about
WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT (WAD)
WAD focuses specifically on the relation
between patriarchy and capitalism. The
WAD perspective states that women have
always participated and contributed
towards economic development, regardless
of the public or private spheres.
Feminism
Feminism is about all genders having
respecting diverse women's experiences,
identities, knowledge and strengths, and
striving to empower all women to realize
their full rights.
Grief History of Feminism
1st wave – Women’s Suffrage Movement
2nd wave – Social and economic equality
Womanist/Women of Color Feminism
Came about as a critique of the white
woman’s feminist movement.
Liberal Feminism
there are no basic differences in the nature
of men and women and that people of both

GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT (GAD)
Its two main goals were to prove that the
unequal relationship between the sexes
hinders development and female
participation. The GAD approach is not just
focused on the biological inequalities
among sexes: men and women, however
on how social roles, reproductive roles and
economic roles are linked to Gender
inequalities of: masculinity and femininity.  Socialist Feminism
GENDER EQUALITY
Gender equality is a fundamental human
right and that right is violated by gender-
based discrimination. Gender disparity
starts in childhood and is right now limiting
the lifelong potential of children around the
world – disproportionately affecting girls.
 FEMINISM PERSPECTIVE
3rd wave – Intersexuality genders have the same potential for
4th wave – empowerment of women, digital achievement
feminism
Radical Feminism
TYPES OF FEMINISM that there are differences in the nature of
men and women.
Cultural feminism
there are differences in the nature of men
and women, and that female traits are
the human nature of men and women is
superior to male traits.
reflected in their human needs (both
physical and social) and how these needs 
Conservative feminism
are met.
Conservative feminism is based on the
assumption that the nature of 
men and women are different for biological
and religious reasons.
 SYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
 Early psychological approaches to
deviance emphasized the biological and
psychodynamic roots of deviance.
 A great deal of research tried to predict
criminality on the basis of the personality
traits.
 Research by German-born British
psychologist Hans Eysenck proposed
that criminality resulted from high levels
of psychoticism (characterized by
antisocial, unempathetic, and impulsive
behavior), extraParly psychological
approaches to deviance emphasized the
biological and psychodynamic roots of
deviance.
 A great deal of research tried to predict
criminality on the basis of the personality
traits.
 Research by German-born British
psychologist Hans Eysenck proposed that
criminality resulted from high levels of
 psychoticism (characterized by antisocial,
unempathetic, and impulsive behavior),
 extraversion (sociable, easygoing,
optimistic and enjoying of excitement), and
 neuroticism (characterized by feelings of
inferiority and unhappiness and by
hypochondria, guilt, and anxiety)
 criminality can be viewed as a product od
forces other than biological factors or
parental socialization practices. However,
while the absence of a stable and the
presence of negative socializing agents
may play a role, those aspects of
socialization may in turn be affected by
other factors, such as poverty within the
home and in the wider community.
PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
claims that
1. the individual is the primary unit of
analysis. This means that
psychologists believe that individual
human beings are solely responsible
for their criminal or deviant acts.
2. An individual’s personality is the
major motivational element that
drives behavior within individuals.
3. Criminals and deviants are seen as
suffering from personality
deficiencies, which means that
crimes result from abnormal,
dysfunctional, or inappropriate
mental processes within the
personality of the individual.
 Psychological explanations of deviant
behavior come mainly form three theories:
1. Psychoanalytic Theory
2. Cognitive Learning Theory
3. Learning Theory
Psychoanalytic Theory
• States that all humans have natural
drives and urges that are repressed in
the unconscious.
• All humans have criminal tendencies.
These tendencies are curbed however,
through the process of socialization.
• EX. A child that is improperly socialized,
then, could develop a personality
disturbance that causes him or her to
direct antisocial impulses either inward
or outward. Those who direct them
inward become neurotic while those that
direct them outward become criminal.
Cognitive Learning Theory
• According to the cognitive development
theory, criminal and deviant behavior
results from the way in which individuals
organize their thoughts around morality
and the law.
 Learning Theory
• Learning Theory is based on the
principles of behavioral psychology,
which hypothesizes that a person’s
behavioral is learned and maintained by
Third Stage: Post Conventional Stage
Post-conventional level, is reached during
early adulthood at which point individuals
are able to go beyond social conventions.
That is, they value the laws of the social
system.

its consequences or rewards.

• Individuals thus learn deviant and
criminal behavior by observing other
people and witnessing the rewards or
consequences that their behavior
receives.

3 THREE LEVELS OF MORAL

REASONING

(Cognitive Learning Theory)

First Stage: Pre-conventional Stage

Which is reached during middle childhood,
moral reasoning is based on obedience and
avoiding punishment.

Second Stage: Conventional Level

Reached at the end of middle childhood.
During this stage, moral reasoning is based
on the expectations that’s the child’s family
and significant others have for him or her.