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It is as old as
the world itself. And every age has a means by which it handles it.
In the non-literate societies, crime was a kind of deviation from,
repudiation or an infringement of the code(s) or norms by which a
people lived. In the Biblical world, especially in the Old Testament,
it was called sin- usually against God or fellow humans. And the
remedy then was some punishment or atonement. The question
now is why has the world not been able to free itself from crime?
Or why has crime not been on the wane in the light of
advancement in civilization, literacy, science and technology that
should help in ensuring crime- free world? In other words, can
there not be an end to crime in any society including Nigeria?
Nigeria in particular is faced with the problem of oil theft. The
need to come to terms with these problems makes necessary the
consideration of three sociological theories about delinquency or
crime in general. These are:
Anomie theory
Subcultural theory
Ecological theory
ANOMIE
Anomie is postulated by the French sociologist Emile Durkheim
(1958-1917) to describe absence of social or moral principles in
any society or person. According to him, every society has certain
informal norms which members are morally obliged to observe.
These norms or codes that regulate the behavior of individuals in
the society may and often experience changes. The changes may
be positive (as when a society experiences a boom in its fortune,
a kind of prosperity) or negative (as when scarcity, dearth, war or
famine is experienced, a kind of austerity or adversity). At
instance of such interruption, individuals are disorientated.
Individuals are at a loss about what is expected of them; how are
they to behave?.
The lack of cohesive social alternatives in the face of an upheaval
puts members of the society in a flux. Alienation, deviance as well
as laisezaller will have to be embraced as substitute. A situation
like this has long been documented: In those days there was no
king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own
eyes. (Judges 17:6) Durkheim observed that traditional religion
used to provide grounds for socially shared values that socially
disoriented person does not have. This was manifest in the past
when resources were pooled to produce the necessities of the
group survival. Much of the peoples physical and mental
activities were identical and geared towards the realization of
group goals. All those have changed with Industrial Revolution
that formalized division of labour and people now pursue their
egoistic goals not the goals of the larger society. Thus when
individualism is stressed in the pursuit of success, communalism
has to suffer.
The concept of anomie as postulated by Durkheim was adapted
by Robert Merton (1910-2003) a Jewish American sociologist in
what is known as Strain Theory. It is about the place of culture in
creating deviance. There is discordance in common social goals
and genuine avenues for the attainment of such goals. Every
society has what it terms success which its members strive to
attain. Paradoxically, the means to attain these goals are limited
Conformity
Innovation
Ritualism
Retreatism
Rebellion
By conformity it means individuals accept both the goals and
means of realizing the goals as prescribed by the society.
Innovation entails accepting the goals but rejecting the means
giving by the society and creating novel means that may be
illegitimate. Ritualism is accepting the socially given means but
rejection of the goals. Retreatism is rejection of goals and means.
Rebellion, people reject the prescribed societal goals and means
and rather create their own goals and means.
The criticism of Mertons theory for its inability to account for all
the causes of delinquency notwithstanding, it is one theory whose
observations about the whys of delinquency are still relevant
today.
by
Albert
K.
Cohen
(1955)
who
theorized
the
which
was
primarily
expressive
and
appears
that
exist
between
living
entities
and
their