‘Terror Europa’
By Jozef Danglar Gertli, Slovakia (via truthdig.com, 5/3/12)
“Social Structure and
Anomie” (1938)
Robert Merton
American sociology develops into
different ‘schools,’ based on
divergent philosophical traditions
1) “Chicago School”: indigenous, American tradition focused on microlevel of society, based in University of Chicago
 e.g., Mead, Goffman
2) “Harvard-Columbia axis”: influenced by European, grand theory,
focused on macro-level and middle-range of society
 e.g., Parsons, Merton
 Whereas macro-level theories focus on "big" structures like the economic
system, midrange theories examine the "institutional" level of society
 Merton’s anomie theory is a structural theory, but it refers to "middle-range" of
social organization, rather than the macro-level
Aim: to explain nonconformity,
deviance
 Aim: to explain how some social structures exert pressure
upon certain persons to deviate
 Like other structural theories, it locates deviance in social
structural conditions
Adaptation to anomie (social strain)
 Anomie theory locates the cause of deviance in a disjuncture
(or mismatch) between culturally prescribed goals (values) and
socially structured means (norms) to achieve them
 Individuals in such a society must adapt to this mismatch, and
some of those adaptations may lead to deviance
 Members of social classes or ethnic or racial groups that
experience this disjuncture most acutely are more likely to
make deviant adaptations
In hyper-competitive American
society, the “end justifies the means”
 Exaltation of the end generates a literal demoralization
 i.e., people act in ‘immoral’ ways to achieve success
 "The 'end-justifies-the-means' doctrine becomes a guiding tenet for
action when the cultural structure unduly exalts the end and the social
organization unduly limits possible recourse to approved means"
 “The extreme emphasis upon the accumulation of wealth as a symbol of
success in our own society militates against the completely effective
control of institutionally regulated modes of acquiring a fortune. Fraud,
corruption, vice, crime, in short, the entire catalog of proscribed
behavior, becomes increasingly common when the emphasis on the
culturally-induced success-goal becomes divorced from a coordinated
institutional emphasis.” (676)
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Modes of adaptation to anomie
Cultural goals
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Conformity
Innovation
Ritualism
Retreatism
Rebellion
+
+
x
Institutional means
+
+
x
[+] = "acceptance" / [-] = "elimination" / [x] = "rejection and substitution of
new goals and standards”
Modes of adaptation are distinguished by
responses to culturally prescribed goals (values)
and socially structured means (norms)
 Most people conform to goals and means
 Conformity: to conform to goals and means, and avoid becoming
deviant; this is the most common response to strain in every society
 Conformity is a nondeviant adaptation where people continue to engage
in legitimate occupational or educational roles despite environmental
pressures toward deviant behavior
 i.e., the conformist accepts and strives for the cultural goal of material
success (+) by following institutionalized means (+)
Retreatism
 Retreatism: to reject goals and means, withdraw emotionally, socially
 Retreatism involves complete escape from the pressures and
demands of organized society
 Merton applies this adaptation to the deviant role “activities of
psychotics, autists, pariahs, outcasts, vagrants, vagabonds, tramps,
chronic drunkards, and drug addicts”
 conceptualization of retreatism is more individualistic than other modes of
adaptation
 Retreatism is an escape mechanism whereby the individual resolves
internal conflict between moral constraints against the use of
illegitimate means and repeated failure to attain success through
legitimate means
 Subsequently, Merton’s conception of retreatism as a private way of
dropping out was given a more sociological interpretation by theorists in the
subcultural tradition (Coward. 1959; Cloward & Ohlin, 1960)
Ritualism
 Ritualism: to conform to society’s norms (means) without any
expectation of achieving culturally prescribed goals (values).
 “They go through the motions of everyday life and do not feel the need to
deviate from social norms. It might never occur to them that they should
commit a crime even though they might benefit from it materially”
 The ritualist is an overconformist
 Pursuit of dominant cultural goal of economic success is rejected or
abandoned (-) and compulsive conformity to institutional norms (+) becomes
an end in itself
 Exemplified by the bureaucratic clerk who, denying aspirations for
advancement, becomes preoccupied with ritual of doing it “by the book”
 Since the ritualist outwardly conforms to institutional norms, there is good
reason to question, as does Merton, “whether this (adaptation) represents
genuinely deviant behavior” (1957: 150)
 Merton argues that this adaptation is most likely to occur within the
lower middle class of American society where socialization practices
emphasize strict discipline and rigid conformity to rules
Innovation
 Innovation: to strive toward culturally prescribed goals, but by
illegitimate (often criminal) means
 Innovation involves acceptance of the cultural goal (+) but rejection of
legitimate, institutionalized means (-)
 the innovator moves into criminal or delinquent roles that employ illegitimate
means to obtain economic success
 Merton argues that innovation is particularly characteristic of the lower
class—the location in the class structure of American society where
access to legitimate means is especially limited and the “strain toward
anomie” is most severe
 Driven by the dominant cultural emphasis on material goals, lowerclass persons use illegitimate but expedient means to overcome these
structural blockages
 Like Durkheim’s analysis of anomic suicide, Merton arrives at an
environmental explanation of an important set of social facts; i.e., the high
rates of lower-class crime and delinquency found in official records
Rebellion
 Rebellion refers to the role behavior of political deviants, who
attempt to transform the existing structure of society
 In later work (1966), Merton uses the term nonconformity to contrast
rebellion to other forms of deviant behavior that are “aberrant”
 The nonconforming rebel is not secretive as are other, aberrant
deviants and is not merely engaging in behavior that violates the
institutional norms of society
 The rebel publicly acknowledges his or her intention to change
those norms and the social structure that they support in the
interests of building a better, more just society
 Merton implies that rebellion is most characteristic of “members of
a rising class” who become inspired by political ideologies that
“locate the source of large-scale frustrations in the social structure
and portray an alternative structure which would not, presumably,
give rise to frustration of the deserving”
Neither lack of opportunity nor
exaggerated focus on money alone
account for anti-social behavior
 “It is only when a system of cultural values extols, virtually
above all else, certain common symbols of success for the
population at large while its social structure rigorously restricts
or completely eliminates access to approved modes of
acquiring these symbols for a considerable part of the same
population, that antisocial behavior ensues” (680)
Lack of opportunity + stress on financial success + egalitarian ideology
=> anomie
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Key take-away points
1.
2.
3.
4.
Structural strain breeds antisocial behavior
Poverty per se does not lead to crime
‘Culture’ not biology accounts for susceptibility to crime
Lack of opportunity + stress on financial success +
egalitarian ideology  anomie