Merton,Robert

Abstract

Robert King Merton is the best‐known American sociologist of the twentieth century. His theory of anomie is one of the most influential theories in the sociology of deviance. Merton's theoretical development of social structure and anomie and the individual modes of adaptation (conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion) continues to be studied and is widely cited by sociologists and criminologists as an important framework for understanding how individuals react to strain.