SOC 2230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Mass Incarceration, Social Theory, Anomie

• School: University of Virginia
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 2230
• Professor: Mc Connell Bob

Document Summary

The idea of strain ultimately comes from merton. Merton himself did not talk about strain in the same way that contemporary strain theorists do. Merton talked about strain or a tendency for society to fall into a state of anomie. Strain comes from merton"s observation that people in the lower class have limited means to attain goals: this idea inspired a whole school of strain theory. Not being able to attain goals and the frustration, leads to adaptation, which leads to crime. If a person feels like he is blocked from attaining a goal, that is strain. We have to observe the goal in each of these kinds of strain: is the person strained because he cannot attain the goal, in some types- the goal falls out of the equation all together. The person experience"s frustration at not being able to attain their goal: crime, according to strain theory, is simply a way of coping.