Anomie Theory Analysis

Criminologists are always searching for answers behind the questions of why crime is committed. More often than not, they attempt to look within the individual of the criminal and dissect psychological issues that may contribute to criminal behavior. Some theorists, however, have a broader view of the world and have developed other ideas. Two theorists, Emile Durkheim and Robert Merton, have molded the idea that societal structure has a large amount of influence on deviant behavior. This idea was fabricated and eventually crafted into the anomie theory.

The formation of the anomie theory began with the advancement of society as a whole. In the early to mid-eighteenth century, numerous people were adequately skilled in a variety of works. This setting meant that these skilled people were, for the most part, self-reliant and able to take care of themselves. As society advanced, however, the specialization of skills began to occur. Where there was once many people with many skills, there was now many people with specific skills. This shift led to individuals having a dependency on each other. The sudden change in how society operated would soon lead to conflict because people were not accustomed to working together and did not know how to properly treat one another. The affable soon became agitated, and this soon led to a dissolving of the social norms. These circumstances were eventually labeled as anomie.

Anomie, in this context, can be defined as a paradigm shift from a self-reliant society to its people relying on one another. The anomie theory attempts to explain why society may influence deviant behavior, and Robert Merton explains it by classifying people into five different categories. These categories include conformists, innovators, ritualists, retreatists, and rebels. His purpose of classification was to show the correlation between an individual’s goals, the means to obtain those goals, and the overall effect they have on an individual's likelihood to partake in deviant behavior.

Conformists were classified as having goals as well as the means to obtain them, making them most beneficial to society. Innovators are usually diligent individuals that have goals they wish to see come to fruition, but they do not possess the means or opportunity to achieve them. Ritualists, contrary to innovators, have the opportunity but do not have any lucrative goals. The retreatists, however, are in a more difficult situation as they typically do not have goals nor the means to achieve them. They are normally raised in households where they are deprived of opportunities to succeed and goals are seldom even made. Finally, rebels have no desire to benefit society and therefore create goals to satisfy themselves with or without the means to do so. This is a very dangerous group that attempt to exploit the flaws of society, and these characteristics are normally found in more radical individuals.

The idea Merton wanted to convey was “moving individuals up” the classifications toward conformist would create better societal members. He wished society to attempt to improve everyone to the classification of conformist. This meant to strive in an attempt for everyone to have goals that could benefit society, as well as obtain the means to achieve these goals. The final product Merton sought did not have to be an affluent individual, but needed to possess the means to obtain his or her specific goals. The task, however valiant the motivation to achieve, was an extremely daunting task.

The vast number of innovators made it very difficult to provide opportunities for all of them to strive. For those who could not obtain the means to achieve their goals may turn to illegitimate means of crime to create opportunities for themselves. The idle mentality of ritualists is challenging to alter considering this is a mental issue of motivation and not a physical need that can be attained by another. Those ritualists who have many resources and nothing to do with them may use their means to partake in deviant activity unbeneficial to society. Understanding the difficulty of these two becoming conformists would only raise the improbability of retreatists reaching that classification because they would have twice as much to achieve. The seemingly minute hope within retreatists may lead to regrettable actions, deviant or possibly even criminal. Lastly, the rebels are more so tolerated than they are helped. They have no desire to be beneficial to society, and therefore would be more trouble than not to try to help.

Although Merton’s theory has been supported for nearly seventy years, it remains a theory for a reason. It, like most theories, does contain flaws. The largest issue with the theory of anomie is the generalization that occurs with the classification of people into one of the five categories. The problem with this categorization is that people cannot always be generalized; they are individual people with unique personalities and lifestyles. While a person’s surroundings or societal situation may influence their behavior, it cannot altogether dictate how his or her life will be lived. Merton does an impressive job concocting his theory, and while many behaviors can be explained by the theory, it is impossible to explain every person’s behavior.

Another issue with the theory of anomie is the Merton’s idea of “moving individuals up” the classification ladder. Although the motive is genuine, the possibility of everyone achieving the conformist classification is next to impossible. Even everyone advancing a single step in classification would be an arduous feat. The complexity of achieving a difficult classification is an issue in itself. A retreatist, for example, may have been through life-altering situations that have eliminated both his means and motivation to benefit society. Another retreatist, however, may have been raised in a household where the means were so scarce that the idea of having goals to benefit society was avoided completely. It is obvious that this issue of complexity can range across all of Merton’s classifications, and the idea of a completely "conformist society" is next to impossible to obtain.

All of the classifications and theories found in Merton’s work is aimed to understand and minimize deviant behavior. The anomie theory, however, is just a theory; it has support as well as flaws. While the goal of society is for everyone to be a conformist, many will never achieve that status. At the same time, there are reasons why innovators, ritualists, and retreatists would all exhibit deviant and possibly criminal behavior. Likewise, there are even some conformists that may exhibit deviant behavior. Merton’s largest hope through his work was to mold the idea of societal influence on individuals’ behavior, which many would agree he did through the anomie theory.