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...ied the notion of anomie to try and explain crime rates and social deviance in the USA. He used the idea of norm conflict as the basis of the high rate of crime, deviancy and unrest in modern America. According to his analysis, there is a lack of fit between the unlimited ambitions of the American Dream into which all young people in America are socialised, and the limited opportunities available for achieving such wealth and fame. Not everyone can become a millionaire or president and for some groups like the Blacks the opportunities to rise are virtually non-existent. So how do people adapt to such failure? Merton outlined five forms of adaptation, four of which involved some form of deviance. While a few reach the top legitimately by conforming – by promotion, luck or skill – others succeed by illegitimate means through crime. The rest adapt to failure by withdrawing into drugs, retreating to alternative societies such as communes or even rebelling against – 24 – KEY IDEAS IN SOCIOLOGY: THE CLASSICAL the whole idea of such materialism and competition by joining urban guerilla groups such as the Black Panthers or Minutemen. In the __ _s a whole range of programmes of ‘positive discrimination’, particularly the massive Headstart Programme, were instituted to try to increase opportunities for deprived groups especially young Blacks and to socialise th...