Merton's Social Structure

Crime is identified as an action that is prohibited by law or a failure to act as required by law. But where do these laws or rules come from? According to Emile Durkheim in his article “The Normal and the Pathological,” the first thing that is created by human interaction is rules. Humans interact and create these rules to survive because rules are fundamentally important. It is when a specific behavior, or rule, becomes important enough that it is called a crime when it is violated (Durkheim 1895). There are many theories of crime which fall into different categories. These categories include biological theories, criminological theories, psychological theories, and sociological theories. Each theory attempts to explain the causes, whether biological, psychological, etc, behind the commitment of crime. Some crime theorists view crime as a necessary evil saying without it then society would remain stagnant. Robert K. Merton’s theory of criminality agreed with them in that it was necessary but he believed it was because of societal inequality that it was necessary in order to maintain stability. He believed that there are two elements to our social structure, which are cultural goals and institutionalized means. Ideally, the means would be equally available to everyone in society and allow them to reach the goals. However, our society is somewhat disorganized and structurally unequal. So Merton argues that there are five types of individual adaptation that individuals turn to in order to reach the goals if they are unable to do so by institutionalized means. The methods or adaptations individuals follow are conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. The inequality of society’s structure creates a strain, as it is often referred to as, which causes a move toward anomie. It is the family, Merton believes, that can do the most in preventing this strain towards anomie. Society has two elements to its structure; cultural goals and

References: Durkheim, Emile. 1895. “The Normal and the Pathological.” The Rules of Sociological Method. Merton, Robert K. 1938. “Social Structure and Anomie.” American Sociological Review 3:672-282.