Research Paper on:
College Campuses and Merton's Deviance Theory

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
use it as their personal mantra, would they? According to some philosophers Emille Durkheim and Merton, crime is not only inevitable, but it is the result of a healthy society,  as necessary to the survival of the community as any other component. Given this, then, the modes of adaptation exhibited by various segments on a college campus would seem to  bear this hypothesis out. Mertons theory of deviance builds on the ideas of Emille Durkheims ideas about society. Mertons theory, in a nutshell, states that deviations from the norm represent  a normal parameter in response to frustrations, tensions, or other types of stresses which result when an individual or group suffers a conflicting situations or a conflict of interest/philosophy with  society. Those causes for deviations lie in the contradictions between the goals put forth by the community and the ability for all of a society to obtain or achieve those  goals(Hill 1980). Merton theorized that culture was also a determinant on the amount of deviation a society would experience. He guessed that those societies that placed the most importance on  difficult to obtain or maintain goals would have the highest incidences of deviant behavior. Hence, according to Merton, deviance is the result of an almost universal cultural  desire for material security, success, and comfort on one hand, and limited opportunities to achieve these things on the other hand(Hill 1980). Merton also suggests that there are several types  that when faced with the inevitability that they will not achieve goal will turn to deviant measures to procure means to obtain the goal. Mertons Law breaks these deviant responses  into five basic groups. These groups grow progressively worse. Those people who seem to obtain goal with ease are called conformists. These people personify the good citizen.