Strain Theories
1.Merton’s Theory
2.Agnew’s General Strain Theory
American Dream
In simple terms, we are socializedinto the "American Dream" ofhealth, wealth, personal happiness
American society is structured toensure that the vast majority ofpeople could never realistically attainthese ends through the means thatAmerican society provides inlegitimate ways - hard work
Strain Theory: R.K.Merton.
Merton’s Anomie
Anomie is a disjunction between thesocially-produced and encouragedends or goals and the means throughwhich people can achieve thesedesirable ends
Merton’s theory
Because of this tension anomieoccurs
When a desired success is denied,people would find other, probablyless legitimate, means towarddesired ends.
Merton’s typology
Merton elaborated five basicresponses to the anomic situationwhich he claimed to see in Americansociety
He classified these types ofconformity and deviance in terms ofacceptance and denial of basic endsand means
Merton’s typology
Response:
Means:
Ends:
1. Conformity
+
+
2. Innovation
-
+
3. Ritualism
+
-
4. Retreatism
-
-
5. Rebellion
Rejects means
Rejects ends
Merton’s Conformity
Conformity applies tothe law-abidingcitizen
These people acceptboth socially-producedends and the socially-legitimated means toachieve them
Merton’s Innovation
Innovation is deviant behaviour thatuses illegitimate means to achievesocially acceptable goals
Drug crimes, property crimes
and some white collar crimes would
be examples of innovation
Merton’s Ritualism
3. Ritualism might refer to someonewho conforms to socially-approvedmeans, but has lost sight of the ends(or has come to accept that they willnever achieve them)
Such people are likely to be elderlyand they probably enjoy a reasonablycomfortable lifestyle.
Merton’s Retreatism
An example ofretreatism is someonewho "drops-out" ofmainstream society. Thedrug addict who retreatsinto a self-containedworld, the alcoholic whois unable to hold-down asteady job
Merton’s rebbellion
Political deviance is a good example of therebellion response, whether this is expressedin terms of working for a revolutionary group orthrough political terrorism
Assessment
Monetary success is the only onemotive mentioned by Merton
Some criminals are engaged intodeviant activities for no apparentreason (enjoyable)
If the strains of life really operates assuggested by Merton, why mostmembers of society are engaged inlaw-abiding activities?
Agnew (1992) and GST
General strain theory (GST)
Agnew postulated that strain does notneed to be specifically tied toeconomic status because it is actuallya psychological reaction to anyperceived negative aspect of one'ssocial environment
GST
Hypothetically, individuals from allsocial classes could engage in criminalbehavior because they could allexperience negative emotions arisingfrom strain
Robert Agnew’s General StrainTheory (1992)
Anger has a significant impact onall measures of crime and deviance
ANGER
Criminal
Behavior
Strain
What are Strains?
Strains refer to events or conditionsthat are disliked by most individuals
Three major types of strain
Failure to achieve positivelyvalued goals
Loss of positive stimuli
Presentation of negative stimuli
Failure to achieve positively valuedgoals
Gap between expectations andactual achievements (not alwayslong-term)
Loss of positive stimuli
Moving to a new city/school
Parental divorce
Death of a relative/closefriend
Break Up
Presentation of negative stimuli
Peer pressure
Physical /emotional abuse)
Stress, bullying and depressionranked one, two and threerespectively in a list of incidents asreported by elementary, middle andhigh school students.
As reported by students enrolled in schools usingAnComm’s ‘Talk About It®’ anonymous online reportingservice. The annual AnComm ‘Talk About It®’ Reportsample includes more than 70,000 students enrolled in52 schools across 12 states.
GST
While GST posited that each type ofstrain ultimately lead to deviance forslightly different reasons, all threetypes were thought to increase thelikelihood that an individual wouldexperience negative emotions inproportion to the magnitude, duration,and recency of the stress
Agnew’s Theory
Factors affecting
disposition to delinquency
Criminal Behavior
ANGER
Constraints to delinquent
behavior
Strain
Links Between Strain and Crime
Anger was found to incite a person toaction, and create a desire for revenge
Crime allows individuals to obtainrevenge against those who havewronged them
Crime may allow individuals to alleviatetheir negative emotions
Coping with strain through crime
Why are some people more likely thanother to cope with strains through crime?
Bad temper
Low self-control
Previous delinquent behavior
Delinquent friends
If the initial goals are high and they have fewalternative goals to fall back on, then theperson may be more prone to committingdelinquent acts
Coping Strategies Other ThanCrime
Crime is not the only way thatpeople will respond to strain
There are three different types ofcoping strategies that enable theindividual to deal with the strain intheir life through legitimatemeans
A.Cognitive
B.Emotional
C.Behavioral
Cognitive coping strategies
Enable the individual to rationalize thestressors in three ways (Agnew, 1992)
Minimize the importance of the strain byplacing less importance on a particular goal
Maximizing the positive while minimizingthe negative outcomes of an event. This isan attempt to ignore the fact that there hasbeen a negative event
Accept the outcomes of the negativeoutcomes as fair
Behavioral coping strategies
Individuals may actively seek outpositive stimuli (social support fromfriends and relatives)
Try to escape negative stimuli
In addition, individuals may activelyseek out revenge in a non-delinquentmanner (Agnew, 1992:69)
Emotional coping strategies
Relaxation methods
Sport
Meditation
GST and gender differences incrime
1)The levels and types of strain couldbe different for girls and for boys
2)Boys and girls may have differentresponses to the same strain
3)Gender variation in conditioningeffects (gender differences indealing/coping with strain)
The levels and types of strain
Boys are more likely than are girls toexperience strain because of negativepeer relations that are marked byconflict, competition, jealousy, andimbalance
Girls are especially susceptible to straincaused by problems in forming andmaintaining positive relationships withfamily and friends
Different responses to the same strain
Consistent with gender socialization,when facing stressors, males would bemore likely to behave aggressively
Females would be more likely toengage in more passive and self-destructive forms of delinquency, suchas running away form home, alcoholuse, etc.
Sex differences in emotional responses
Female
Male
More likely to respond withdepression and anger
More likely to respond withanger
Anger is accompanied byfear, guilt, and shame
Anger is followed by moraloutrage
More likely to blamethemselves and worryabout the affects of theiranger
Quick to blame others andare less concerned abouthurting others
Depression and guilt maylead to self-destructivebehaviors (i.e. eatingdisorders)
Moral outrage may lead toproperty and violent crime
Sex differences in copingstrategies
Females employ escape and avoidancemethods to relieve the strain
Females have stronger relational ties thatmight help to reduce strain (social support)
Males are lower in social control, and theysocialize in large, hierarchical peer groupswhere they need to maintain their status
Therefore, males are more likely torespond to strain with crime (Agnew 1997).
Empirical support
Numerous tests of GST had alsoexamined the relationship betweenstrain and negative emotion, yieldingmixed results
Several studies had found strain-induced anger to be the primarynegative emotion to exert a significanteffect on deviance (Broidy, 2001 andPiquero and Sealock, 2000).
Policy Recommendations
Agnew proposed several differentprograms to reduce delinquencywhich have shown success afterbeing implemented
Policy Recommendations
Family-based programs are designed toteach the members how to solve problemsin a constructive manner, and parents aretaught how to effectively discipline theirchildren (Agnew, 1995)
This will reduce the amount of negativeemotions that result from conflict in thefamily and will decrease the amount ofstrain in the home
Policy Recommendations
School-based programs seek to improverelations in and between schools
Peer based programs seek to reduce theamount of strain that an adolescent feelsas a result of relationships with peers
Relationships with peers can be negativewhen the peers are delinquent or whenthey are physically or verbally abusivetoward other peers