Essay on American Dream Disadvantages

Strain theories are a proposal that pressure derived from social factors, such as lack of income or lack of quality education drives individuals to commit crime. They focus especially on the ways om which people may resort to crime or deviance when they are unable to achieve socially approved goals by legitimate means, This means a legally correct mean, something that in society would be considered normal. There are four considered types of strain theories, them all being anomie theory (Merton), institutional anomie theory (Messner) general strain theory (Agnew), and relative deprivation theory (Crosby). One that I'm going to focus on is Merton's anomie theory, he showed how both normal and deviant behavior can arise from the same mainstream goals. Both conformists and innovators are pursuing money success, one is legitimate, and the other is illegitimate. Merton explained the patterns shown in official crime statistics, which are that most crime is property crime, this is because American society values material wealth so highly, another being lower class crime rates are higher because they have fewer opportunities to obtain wealth legitimately. However, Merton's theory is criticized quite largely in several areas, one being, that it takes official crime statistics at face value, which means Merton sees crime as a mainly working-class phenomenon. It is also deterministic, the working class experiences more strain, but they don't all deviate towards crime, Another criticism is Marxists argue that it ignores the power of the ruling. Marxists have a different view on strain theories and it is that they argue that crime is a result of people being socialized into expecting success but not achieving their success due to limited opportunities, meaning that people who maybe are less fortunate or people who don't have many opportunities going for them are then almost pushed to a side of society where they begin to socialise with people in the same situation as themselves, in the end it results to crime which links back to item B and agrees with the point made. There are three subcultural strain theories of Cloward and Ohlin, these being criminal subcultures that provide youths with apprenticeships for careers in utilitarian crime. They only often arise in certain neighborhoods with a longstanding and stable criminal culture with an established hierarchy of adult crime. The second subculture theory is conflict, which arises in areas of high population turnover, this often results in high levels of social disorganization and prevents a stable professional criminal network from developing. The final subculture is retreatism subcultures, these are in any neighborhood, and not everyone who aspires to be a professional criminal or a gang leader succeeds. These three subcultures link to recent strain theories because they agree that crime is most likely working class, it spirals from someone who had a poor education, a low-income job, or no job at all, people who have socialized with people in criminal backgrounds or people who have grew up within a certain one of these subcultures, this links back to item B because people turn to crime when there it seems like they have no legitimate way of making something of their life, which falls back to crime and deviance. All of this has a functionalist approach to deviance because they claim that deviance helps to create social stability by presenting explanations of non-normative and normative behaviors, a structural functionalist approach emphasizes social solidarity, each person divided into a small group which is all part of society which fits them and their current lifestyle best.

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Merton's idea of 'strain to anomie' argues that crime occurs when there are not enough legitimate opportunities for people to achieve the normal success goals of a society. Merton developed the concept of anomie to describe this imbalance between cultural goals and institutionalized means. One way that Merton used strain theories to explain some of the patterns of deviance found in society is that he argues that an individual position in the social structure affects the way they adapt or responds to the strain in anomie. There are five different types of adaptation, depending on whether an individual accepts, rejects, or replaces approved cultural goals and the legitimate means of achieving them. There are fewer criticisms of this than you would think, a sociologist Durkheim said society requires a certain amount of deviance to function successfully, but he offers no way of knowing how much the right amount is. Functionalists explain the existence of crime in terms of its supposed function, for example, to strengthen solidarity but this doesn't mean society creates crime in advance with the intention of strengthening it, thieve said Just because crime does these things it doesn't mean to say it is why crime exists in the first place, this point would argue with item B because it was stated crime spirals from someone who had a poor education or had lesser opportunities going for them than others, this shows that each view is different and there is no certain probably answer as to why crime is actually around. There are many issues surrounding this such as determinism, which means the assertion that social facts are determined, This links to the question we have here, How do strain theories link to crime and deviance, people determine what they think is possibly correct but there is always a probable outcome that someone in society would've committed the same crime for different reasons, this comes with equality in society, once women didn't commit crimes at all, these days women don't rely on men to be the only stable income for a household so therefore If they are a single parent they have to commit crimes, etc to get what they need to, this is a completely different reason to someone who committed a crime because they were brought up with brothers or family members in a gang, etc. although there is a positive outcome from sociologist Messner.

Furthermore, the American dream is where Americans are expected to pursue this goal by legitimate means, such as self-discipline, study, education qualifications, and hard work in a career. The ideology of the American dream tells Americans that their society is a meritocratic one where anyone who makes the effort can get ahead, this indicates that there are opportunities for all. However, the reality of the American dream is there are many disadvantaged groups are denied opportunities to achieve legitimately, for example, poverty, inadequate schools, and discrimination in the job market may block opportunities for many ethnic minorities and the lower classes. In summarisation, the American dream has a goal to create a desire to succeed, and lack of opportunity creates pressure to adopt illegitimate means, while the norms are not strong enough to prevent some from succumbing to this temptation. My personal view on this is that it's true, there is pressure in society to make something of your life, everyone wants to be one step ahead, they want to have the best for their children, etc, this shows massive amounts of rebellion because people chose to make their own way in life whether it is legitimate or not, individuals reject the existing society's goals and means, but the replace them with new ones in a desire to bring around a revolutionary change and create a new kind of society, rebels produce political radicals and counter-cultures such as hippies. Overall, I agree with item B and I think that people have to find a way in life, Strain theories are a great example to show crime and deviance in today's society.