The Merton's Strain Theory

The theory I choose that I feel best represents the story would have to be the strain theory. I feel this theory best fits because I believe that society does put a lot of pressure into individuals, especially in the black community. Most of the high crime rates come from the black individuals due to the pressure that is put into them from trying to survive in the cruel world we live in. There is more pressure in the black community for reasons that racism still exists and stereotyping is still an issue in society. When certain people from society see a black person they automatically start assuming they are all criminals, drug addicts, uneducated, problematic and have no good future ahead of them. The strain theory comes from Robert K.

Conformity is following standards and doing what everyone else, more seeing as a follower. Innovation is doing things that are not approved in society but still doing them to achieve goals. For instance, selling drugs or stealing to have money to continue achieving their goals. Ritualism is a sense of being modest and humble. Retreatism: is to reject the cultural goals and means and finding a way to escape from it. Rebellion is to reject the cultural goals and means then work to replace them. In the Merton’s strain theory one of the strength is that it is able to explain the different types of criminal and noncriminal responses to strain. Evidence that support the strain theory can be Philip Bourgeois when he said that even the most despised criminals have become successful in life and that is exactly what happened with Nathan McCall, from going to prison and then landing a career in the Washington Post, shows that anyone can live to the American Dream. Evaluation of strain theory Marxists says that lack of equality opporunties are at the heart of the Capitalist system and that there is not enough evidence to explain who will commit crimes or not. Not everyone who is lacking from oppurnities turn to crimes to

McCall felt a lot of envy towards the white folks because the whites had it easier than the blacks. McCall and his friend would beat up white people and during the beatings he and his friend would express all the hatred they would hold in. For instance, in chapter One when McCall and his friends were hanging out they saw a white boy pass by them and they then started beating him up. “This is for all the times you followed me round in stores,… treated me like a nigger… and just cause you white” (3). When McCall was growing up, he attended school with all white kids in 1966 since it was the first year they allowed blacks to attend school wherever they wanted. McCall suffered a lot of racism, having white boys calling him a “nigger” or moving away when he would walk into class. In McCall eyes there were two distinct words in America and a different set of rules for each. The white one was full of the possibilities of life as the dark one was just dark and limited (17). One time McCall got beat up by older white men and he could not understand someone hating him for simply being black and alive. He wondered, “Where did those white people learn to hate so deeply at such a young age? I didn’t know but with time I learned to hate as blindly and viciously as any of them” (21). When McCall reached the seventh grade he realized that a dudes life had absolutely no meaning if he did not