Robert Merton's Anomie Theory

Robert Merton’s Anomie Theory emphasizes the importance of the goals that people believe are worth striving for, and the legitimate means to attain the desired goals. He says that for these two elements must be balanced, an imbalance of these lead to strain/anomie that can affect people in social classes, but it would most likely affect the people from lower socioeconomic status. Merton states that most people adapt to different modes like conformers, they pursue their goals through acceptable means. Innovators, pursue their goals through illegitimate means, ritualists settle for less and hope that one day they will achieve their goals, retreatists are those who do not pursue their goals and quit, and rebels are the individuals who reject the cultural goal and the legitimate means of achieving it. He believed that the source of crime was the adaption to a contradiction between achieving the desired goal and the ability to achieve the goal through legitimate means. Furthermore, Albert Cohen, a student of Merton adapted his theory and tried to explain gang delinquency. He believed that crime was generally caused by gangs than individually, and that was gangs are formed to gain status among peers, such as family name and position in the community or academic achievement. Cohen states that juveniles can either
They added the illegitimate opportunity structure, which can be identified by three gang types such as the criminal, the violent, and the retreatist. If the illegitimate opportunity is available to them, they will more likely form gangs to get money. If they have neither the legitimate or illegitimate means to make money then they get vicious and violent. Nonetheless, if they are unable to adapt to either type of gang and fail to make money through legitimate means, then they will retreat and give up on