Criminology the Relationship of Crime

Criminology

The relationship of crime and poverty

Robert Merton stated, "Poverty as such, and consequent limitation of opportunity, is not sufficient to induce a conspicuously high rate of criminal behavior (Cullen et al. 2011)." In the statement, Robert Merton wanted to put across that poverty is not the prime cause of crime in the society. Other factors can induce the rise in crime. Two elements according to Robert Merton make up the social and cultural structure. These are institutional norms and cultural goals. When people have no access to the institutional norms of attaining cultural goals, they will resort to crime to achieve these goals (Cullen et al. 2011). Cultural goals refer to monetary success where people want to acquire wealth. This statement concludes that lack of opportunity and poverty does not necessarily cause crime. There are areas where people are poor, but they do not commit a crime as a way to achieve cultural goals. The role of poverty in Robert Merton's strain theory is that it increases the chances of people to commit crime to chase away poverty.

Social disorganization is the failure of social organizations and institutions in the community. An example of a social institution is schools. When social institutions fail, this leads to the increase in crime (Cernkovich et al. 2000). Poverty may lead to the fail of social institutions when parents are not able to pay fees for their children to stay in school. Children in schools learn of good behavior that will instill ethics. The role of poverty is similar in Robert Merton's anomie theory and the social disorganization theories. The two theories conclude that poverty influences people negatively and makes them engage in crime. Poverty necessitates criminal activities in the community.

M4D2: Strain theories at multiple analysis units

There are two main levels of analysis. These are the micro and macro level of analysis. One version of strain theory states that there might be a conflict between a person's reality and aspirations. A poor person may aspire to become wealthy but has to bear the fact that this might be just a dream because he or she has no opportunity to make his dream come true (Bernard et al. 2010). The two conflicting factors in this version are a person's goals and the reality that prevents him from achieving the goals. In the micro level of analysis, strain theory shows how an individual of a family fails to achieve the societal goals because they lack the opportunities to do so. At the macro level of analysis, strain theory explains how a whole nation or civilization fails to achieve cultural goals because of lack of opportunities. This leads to increase in the level of crime because they may not have a source of income, therefore, will resort to crime.

The strengths of this theory are that it clearly explains how lack of opportunities will lead people to experience strain. The desire to live a happy life drives people because they want a life of riches and honor. People will practice anti-social behaviors when they lack opportunities to achieve success. Strain theory justifies why there is a crime in the community by explaining that not all people can have equal opportunities in life. Some people will have opportunities to succeed while others will not.