Criminology

Mertons theory states that crime occurs because of the strain that people feel when opportunities to realise their dreams are not possible through socially accepted means or legal means. The anomie theory applies in a situation where cultural norms on what it means to be successful in life and the acceptable means of achieving there goals do not fit. People are persuaded to engage in illegal activities as a way to achieve these dreams and goals. Their personal circumstances convince them that the social structures they find themselves in will not allow them to reach their goals. The following is a discussion of the strain theory with reference to the strain theory.

Explanation of Crime
Robbery can be described as the taking or attempting to take valuable items from someone else against through threat of violence or actual of violence. Sometimes the victims are people or sometimes entities like banks or businesses. Sometime robbery involves the use of weapon. Robbery usually occurs with the awareness of and resistance by the victims.

Social dimensions of Robbery
Robbery affects society in many ways. First and foremost there is the loss of property for the victims. Robberies committed at home are very intimidating and the victims are left with psychological wounds. They experience fear and sometimes are physically wounded. Robbery can also leads to feelings of insecurity and anxiety. 

Application of Mertons theory on robbery
According to Merton, there are some social structures which apply pressure on individuals in society to be involved in nonconforming behavior as opposed to conforming behavior. Groups that exhibit vulnerability to these pressures demonstrate high cases of deviant behavior. Deviant tendencies therefore are not biologically oriented but rather responses to social pressure.  Social pressure does not indicate limited opportunities but rather systematic restriction by a cultural social structure on one part of population to employ common success goals. As a result, pressure to achieve will weaken tendencies for those who feel disadvantaged to conform to common means of attaining success. Tension between culturally held goals and chance to employ institutional means is responsible for a strain geared for anomie. 

People universally desire comfortable lives. Even as people find it impossible to achieve their dreams through legitimate means, they can not let them go. Accordingly they rebel against socially accepted but frustrating means. Crime is therefore often found to thrive in poor communities where people are not able to rise above poverty levels. Sometimes their families live the same cycle whereby the children live the same poor lives that their parents lived. The children learn that change in their circumstance will not come through the ordinary means that society prescribes.

In many parts of the world, crime is especially high in the urban centres. People move to urban centres to search for better lives and attainment of their goals due to concentration of opportunities for work in urban centres. However when they can not secure jobs, they are stuck in communities that have high standards of living that they cannot afford. It becomes harder than if they were still living in an area where they can get by, The Christian Science Monitor (2006).

The need for material resources propels those who lack to take from those who are materially endowed. They feel following what society prescribes as acceptable means of wealth creation will only leave them at a disadvantage.

The Christian Science Monitor (2006) present robbery as a crime that is sought by those whose key motive is money. One of the explanations offered for the increase in robbery rates in early in the USA in 2006 was the extra economic strain that the country was experiencing. Small and medium towns experienced the largest increase in robbery. In the same towns, poverty rate had been on an upward trend. When they examined national data, most of the criminologists found that most of the towns that reported an increase in poverty are the same ones that reported increased rates of robbery. There thus seems to be a relationship between an increase in poverty and an increase in the rates of robbery.
Research by Richard Wright in Fundamentalfinance.org (2010) also reported that robbery cases go up whenever consumer confidence goes down. Robbery attracts people who feel that they have limited options to improve their economic situation. For those undergoing economic hardship, robbery offers instant rewards. People who can not secure employment and drug addicts are especially likely to engage in robbery.

However, according to the 1997-1998 State and Metropolitan Area Data Book from The Christian Science Monitor (2006), other factors have bearing on crime. Although robbery does occur in areas that have higher poverty the other factors have been sighted for increased robbery. These include minority presence, location of city, education, population density and age. These factors are interrelated and it is hard to know to which extent strain alone plays a part. Other factors like culture, racism reducing chances of employment for minority, lack of good education and age have been found to have bearing on robbery.

A study by Jens Ludwig, Greg J. Duncan, and Paul Hirschfield (2000), indicated that teenagers who lived in areas with high poverty levels committed more crime than they did when they were placed in low crime areas. This would indicate that the environment not just strain plays a part in the robbery rates.

The process of robbery also has been seen to be a part of the poor taking back power and making themselves feel stronger. According to Messerschmidt (1993), poor teenagers and young adults especially boys often feel weak in the presence of unreachable goals and a society that sees them as incapable of anything. Thus through activities like robbery they can redeem themselves. Robbery gives them a chance to get some money and confront others to feel tough.

Robbery also becomes a chance to hit back at those they consider favoured by the system. They seek to victimize those they perceive as responsible for their victimization. Acts of robbery give a chance get relief from the strain they feel to achieve their goals and power like everyone else. The young are especially under a strain to attain the youth culture.

Conclusion.
From the above discussion, although Mertons theory can explain the occurrence of robbery, there are many other factors that are involved. It is not clear what part strain directly plays in robbery occurrence as shown in the above discussion, however, other factors exasperate the strain felt making it hard to know how to eradicate robbery. According to Merton social structures applies pressure on individuals in society to be involved in nonconforming behaviour, individuals vulnerability to these pressures demonstrate high cases of deviant behaviour, however, Social pressure does not indicate limited opportunities but rather systematic restriction by a cultural social structure.