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A study conducted on 411 South London males in the age group of 8 to 32 by the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development revealed that the types of acts leading to convictions belong to a larger syndrome of antisocial behavior. Childhood predictors of criminality included antisocial behavior, impulsivity, family criminality, low intelligence, poor parental child-rearing and poverty. Factors found to help people desist from offending included a job, marriage and moving away from London. The study showed to what extent delinquency could be predicted with children and the influence of various life events on the development of a criminal career.

This paper assesses the theoretical and policy significance of one of Robert Merton's most influential contributions to modern sociology, the anomie or 'strain' theory of deviant behavior. The enduring theoretical significance of strain theory lies in its sociological completeness. Strain theory preserves the interconnection between culture and social structure which is neglected or defined away by cultural and control theories of deviance. In its emphasis on socially structured contradictions in the relations of consumption, strain theory is also broadly consistent with and complements more conflict-oriented theories of crime and deviance. A major weakness of Merton's argument is its failure to clearly distinguish the etiological significance of the distribution of opportunities (mobility) and the distribution of outcomes (equality), which has led to misinterpretations of the policy implications of strain theory. Ironically, these problems are revealed through a kind of self-criticism that applies the basico tools of Mertonian functional analysis to strain theory. The paper concludes that, ambiguities notwithstanding, for purposes of theoretical integration and substantive insight, strain theory remains an important sociological perspective on deviance, especially when set in the context of Merton's broader sociological legacy.