Social Process Theory Analysis

SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND SOCIAL PROCESS 6 legitimate goals. Merton maintained that legitimate goals, involving such thing as wealth, status, and personal happiness are generally portrayed as desirable for everyone. The acceptable means to these goals, including education, hard work, and financial savings, are not equally available to all members of society. As a consequence, crime and deviance tend to arise as alternative means to success when individuals feel the strain of being pressed to in a socially approved ways but find that the tools necessary for such success are not available to them. Merton mode of adaptation is conformity signifies acceptance of goals that society holds as legitimate for everyone, innovation form arises when an …show more content…
Social learning theory suggests that people learn the techniques and attitudes of crime from relationships with criminal peers. Sutherland’s differential association theory claims that crime is learned in the same way as any other kind of behavior. Criminal behavior is learned through interactions with others in a process of communication. Differential reinforcement theory also explains crime as a learned behavior. This theory emphasizes the role of rewards and punishments for creating and maintaining criminal behavior. Neutralization theory claims that most delinquents and criminals hold conventional values and attitudes but master techniques that enables them to neutralize these values and drift back and forth between illegitimate and conventional behavior Siegel, …show more content…
Social structure theories suggest that people’s place in the socioeconomic structure influences their chances of becoming criminals. Poor people are more likely to commit crimes because they are unable to achieve monetary or social success in any other way. People are angry because they cannot achieve legitimate social and economic success and violate the law because they live in areas in which social control is broken down. People in this situation will bond together in their own groups or subcultures for support and recognition. Social learning theory stresses that people learn how to commit crimes. Labeling theory maintains that negative labels produce criminal careers. Social learning theory suggest that that people learn criminal behavior much as they learn conventional behavior and all people have the potential to become criminal. There bonds to conventional society prevent them from violating the law. Labels like criminal and ex-con isolate people from society and lock them into lives of