Positivist criminology is a method in which data is collected, using observable factors, to explain why people commit crimes or act deviantly (Beirne & Messerschmidt, 2006). A positivist theory called Anomie theory was created by Emile Durkheim, but I agree with Robert Merton/Cohen's explanation. Merton's thought society assigns goals to individuals, without the tools to obtain them, and this causes deviant behavior. Merton talks about goals set for individuals which cannot always be obtained legally. Where I live, in Washington Heights, drug dealing is popular and I know people who sell drugs. One of my friends' parents sell drugs because he can't find work and doesn't speak English well. With so much stress on him to support his family, he decided to sell drugs to support his family. The class system of the United States pushes individuals to want to achieve financial and social advancement. In some cases this progress cannot be obtained legally and leads people to act in deviant ways. An illegitimate tool for achieving success is white-collar crimes, where a person uses their regular job to commit crimes. White-collar crime is a crime committed by a person of respectable high social status in the exercise of his profession. White-collar crimes tend to cause the most social harm and are usually committed by members of the upper classes (Beirne & Messerschmidt, 2006). White collar crime shows that it is not just the poor who commit crimes. White collar crimes usually occur in large companies. Some white collar crimes are credit card fraud and bank fraud. Another type of white collar crime is embezzlement, where funds are given to a trusted person and the trusted person takes a portion of the money (Keel, 2008). ...... middle of the paper ...... third to learn for some children. Especially one of my friends I knew just decided to drop out because he felt school wasn't for him. The movie was true where rich kids get a better education because their parents have high status jobs or a lot of money. Additionally, some children at the school felt marginalized because they came from low-income areas compared to those who had wealthy parents. Even one of my teachers told me a while ago that people whose parents have high-level jobs pass down better business etiquette to their children. I don't know if that's true for everyone, but I think it's true in America where if your parents know more about business the child is more likely to be successful. Works Cited Sutherland. H (NA) Differential Association Theory Retrieved from http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/sutherland.html