Using Merton’s Adaptations to Strain to Classify Organizations in the Criminal Justice Environment

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

Using Merton’s five categories of individual adaptations to strain resulting from the imbalance of cultural goals and institutional means in a society, the authors will outline a scheme for matching organizational values systems to components of the criminal justice system and organizations with which they interact in the social environment. Special attention will be given to those organizations that fall within Merton’s category of “resentiment,” and their challenges to the criminal justice order. The range of non-formal criminal justice-related organizations that provide controls on criminal justice organizations will also be examined. Finally, the role of the private sector in partnership with and control over the criminal justice system will be explored. The purpose of the analysis is to demonstrate the networks of relationships and control within which the current criminal justice system exists.

Authors

• Roberto Hugh Potter, University of Central Florida

• Gail Sears Humiston, University of Central Florida