Describe Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld's 1994 published work that revived Merton's original theory. List their four distinctive value orientations and four important institutions

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer:
• Messner and Rosenfeld's institutional anomie theory focused on institutions that are responsible for regulating our behavior and how many of these institutions have been subverted and rendered ineffective.
• Argued that institutions address the need of the society and its people to adapt to the environment, gather and deploy resources for collective purposes, and socialize members of the society
• Highlighted the core values of the American Dream and how these values place great pressure on individuals to achieve at any cost:
o Achievement
o Individualism
o Universalism
o Money fetish
• Four important types of institutions identified as most relevant for understanding crime:
o Economic
o Political
o Family
o Education
• Messner & Rosenfeld argue economy holds disproportionate power and other institutions are devalued relative to strictly economic pursuits.