Anomie Theory Of Crime Essay

There are many theories that tried to explain why there is such a high crime rates in the United States such as the Anomie theory and the Strain theory. In 1994, Stephen F. Messner and Richard Rosenfeld proposed a similar theory of Anomie. They agree that American society places too much emphasis on material and monetary attainments, the American Dream (Bjerregaard & Cochran, 2008). The American Dream is defined as “the commitment to the goal of material success, to be pursued by everyone in society, under conditions of open, individual competition” (Messner and Rosenfeld, 69). In addition, Messner and Rosenfeld identified four social institutions as those primarily responsible for meeting society’s objectives: the economy, the family, the polity, and the educational system.
The book states that crime in America derives, in significant measure, from highly prized cultural and social conditions. It also stressed the significance of the imbalance of institutional power that is the direct result when an economy dominates a society, as in the United States. Messner and Rosenfeld asserted that the American Dream influences our crime
I think that people in this country get to carried away with monetary success due to our culture that they will try all means to get what they want even if that means committing crimes. I heard this story from my grandpa once about this guy who came from a middle class family and was the manager for Caesar Casino for years. This guy somehow has been taking money from the casino without anyone noticing. He only took small amount of cash each time but over the years, they added up to huge amount. For a while, the casino did not discover this until after he has left Caesar. This example illustrates that sometimes, even wealthy people do what ever it takes to become rich and have the American