Strain theory
Definition
Merton's 1938 theory that crime results from a structural gap between culturally valued goals and the legitimate means available to achieve them. Individuals in that gap may adopt deviant adaptations, including pursuing the goals through illegal means.
Related terms
- Atavism
- Lombroso's concept that born criminals were evolutionary throwbacks to a more primitive human type, identifiable by physical stigmata. The concept is scientifically...
- Classical School
- The eighteenth-century intellectual tradition in criminology, associated with Beccaria and Bentham, that treats offenders as rational actors and argues for proportionate, certain,...
- Labelling theory
- The perspective, associated with Becker and Lemert, that deviance is not a property of the act but a consequence of the social...
- Positivist School
- The nineteenth-century tradition, associated with Lombroso, Ferri, and Garofalo, that rejected free will and sought causes of crime in measurable biological, psychological,...
- Social disorganisation
- The condition of a neighbourhood in which social institutions have weakened to the point where they can no longer effectively regulate behaviour...
Explained in
- History of Criminological ThoughtMerton's 1938 theory that crime results from a structural gap between culturally valued goals and the legitimate means available to achieve them. Individuals i...