welcome to this tutor to you sociology topic video on functionless theories of crime and deviance looking at the work of robert k merton robert king merton was one of the most influential sociologists of the functionalist movement in no small part due to his internal critique of functionalism and particularly the concept of universal functionalism mertens suggested that dysfunction existed in society unlike other functionalists and this formed part of his views on the role of crime and deviance he suggested that there was structural inequality in society and this combined with the insistence of promoting the american dream of wealth and power led to a strain to anime in other words deviate from the norms and values of society the american dream according to merton was shared by most americans however society did not provide clear guidelines on how to achieve this dream and as such this would inevitably lead to criminal and deviant behaviors merton suggested that this strain to anime would lead to different reactions from different people some would accept the idea of the american dream and others would reject it or replace that ideal with an alternative view those who accepted the social goal of the american dream would strive to achieve it either through legitimate means hard work education social networking whilst others would turn to illegitimate means that is crime those that rejected the american dream would also react in different ways some would continue to do what was socially expected of them whilst others would deviate for those selecting an alternative goal this meant adopting new means both legitimate and illegitimate of achieving that goal merton categorized these five different adaptations to strain conformity innovation ritualism retreatism and rebellion whilst some encouraged deviants others relied upon conformity and maintaining social norms merton categorize these on the acceptance or rejection of society's goals and their use of legitimate or illegitimate means to achieve those goals we'll look at each of these adaptations in more detail firstly conformity merton saw this as being the response of most americans to strain it involved accepting the american dream of wealth and power and actively pursuing it by working hard getting good grades in school and gaining qualifications and choosing pathways that were approved that would lead to success in other words through legitimate means the second adaptation was innovation merton suggested that this adaptation to strain accepted the socially approved goals but instead of working hard and gaining qualifications innovators would instead choose illegitimate means of achieving the american dream this was due to opportunities being blocked but innovators maintained a desire to still achieve the american dream and so they adapted they innovated and adopted illegitimate often criminal means to obtain those goals now we can look at examples of organized crime syndicates and white-collar criminals and corporate criminals examples of innovation but mostly this centered on criminals who were focused on utilitarian crimes those that provided a financial gain so for example robbery amongst those that had rejected society's goals were the ritualists these people had accepted they were unlikely to achieve the american dream of wealth and power but were content to conform to society's norms and values they continued to adopt a legitimate means of gaining wealth and power they worked hard they gained qualifications even though they knew was unlikely to lead them to their goals examples of ritualists can often be found in routine occupations administrative roles middle management another group that rejected the socially approved goals of society were retreatists seeing their opportunities blocked retreatists would also reject the legitimate means of achieving the american dream and effectively drop out of social norms and values the lack of motivation to conform would lead them to drug and drink abuse petty crimes and vagrancy as they adopted illegitimate means of getting from one day to the next the final adaptation was rebellion those who adapted by rebelling challenged the socially approved goals and looked to create alternative visions of society they rejected the legitimate means of achieving goals and instead adopted alternative methods of achieving their own version of society martin include political dissidents activists and protesters in this group and considering the social and political disenchantment in the usa at the time of merton's writing the 1930s examples of this group could be found amongst the backdrop of economic turmoil after the great depression a positive evaluation of moon strain theory is that it recognizes the role of structural inequality in crime and highlights how the lack of opportunities can impact on different social groups and this idea was taken up by other functionists such as albert cohen who looked at how structural inequalities and blocked opportunities can lead to the formation of delinquent subcultures we can also ask whether the american dream or indeed any form of consensus norms and values what people aspire to in the 21st century with the fragmentation of social norms and values is the concept of strain still relevant or do people have individual motivations for behaviors rather than socially approved goals like the american dream and finally welles mertens theory offers a rational explanation of why people may commit crimes for financial gain it doesn't explain crimes of passion or crimes where people choose to victimize or act violently against somebody else so it can be argued to be limited in explaining the broad spectrum of criminal and deviant activities that concludes this cheetah to you sociology topic video on functions theories of crime and deviance focusing on robert k merton's strain theory thanks for watching