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Merton’s Strain Theory “ Robert Merton’s 1938 version of anomie theory has been acclaimed by Marshall Clinard as the ‘single most influential formulation in the sociology of deviance, and possibly the most frequently quoted paper in modern sociology (289).’” Merton explained that crime is not of a single person, there is no inner drive for crime. Merton argues that deviance and crime are "normal" aspects of society, but he does not argue that crime is required to generate solidarity or to achieve social progress. Instead, Merton suggests that there is something about American social structure—here, its distribution of wealth and opportunity—that requires crime to maintain society's very stability in the face of structural inequality. He explained that the social structure of a society is what produces crime. Social conditions places pressures on people differently throughout the class structure, and people react individually to these conditions. American society has a culture that involves a means and ends. The goal that everyone is trying to seek is monetary wealth. In American society, argues Merton, the "goal" guiding it all is a vision of how life ought to be: the so-called American Dream. On the one hand