An Assessment Of Whether The Young People’S Explanations For Their Involvement In Crime Reflect The Relevance Of Strain Theory.

An assessment of whether the young people’s explanations for their involvement in crime reflect the relevance of strain theory.

“This paper is my own work. Where I have drawn ideas, information, data or theories from the work of others, I have fully credited these sources in accordance with the referencing standards elaborated in Cite It Right”

While deviance is destined in all societies worldwide, a man named Robert Merton argues, “that excessive violations arise from particular theories social arrangements” (Macionis and Plummer 2005,pg 445). The strain theories state that social structures within society may encourage citizens to commit crime. All systems, whether mechanical or social depend on the essential parts of working in harmony, and any failure or “strain” on one of these harmonious parts causes frustration.
The youths fail to engage in Merton’s two social structures (Fetherstone & Deflem: 2003). The first structure is the culturally assigned goals and aspirations. The second structure known as the Anomie structure defines the acceptable means of achieving these goals and aspirations, e.g. receiving an education in order to become successful in the world of work. In Dublin, value is placed upon being wealthy and powerful, those who fail to achieve this are lacking the status required in life. The ‘quick fix’ way to achieving this social status for youths is to involve themselves in criminal activities. This tension cause can be referred to as anomie.
Albert Cohen found out that delinquency among youths was more prevalent among lower class males, the most common form being the juvenile gangs (Cohen, A. (1955)).In this episode, the majority of the youths are males from below 17 years of age and they were all from low class areas. It is clear that the children seek social status but unfortunately not everyone obtains in the acceptable ways. The youths are no longer in school due to the experience of strong feelings of deprivation or frustration....