Impact Of Strain Theory On Juvenile Delinquency

The Impacts of Social Disorganization and General Strain Theory
On Juvenile Delinquency
Kevin Williams
Georgia Gwinnett College

Introduction
When people think of the term “juvenile delinquency” they may think of the extreme regulations some schools have begun to enact upon individual students in response to major issues such as bullying and school shootings. Criminal prosecution seems to have become the normality in many bullying cases these days as some students can find themselves being suspended for making guns out of paper, or even drawing a gun. Though these “no tolerance” policies that some schools have come up with in order to prevent delinquency from happening may help deter these negative behaviors in some circumstances they are in no way a practical solution, overall.
Rules are essential to order, but what are the reasons youth become delinquent and how can we identify the causes? Two theories that present strong cases towards why youth commit delinquency are the General Strain Theory and Social Disorganization Theory.
At the micro level, General Strain Theory attempts to identify different types of strains that can result in juvenile delinquency. These include a loss of positive stimuli, the preventing an individual from attaining their goals, and introducing negatively-valued stimuli. At the macro level, Social Disorganization attempts to identify the structural and cultural contributions to juvenile delinquency, ranging from areas of poverty to disorganized schools, and the impact these types of structures can have on juvenile delinquency.
Four empirical journal articles have been chosen to identify what contributes to juvenile delinquency using the selected theories previously mentioned. These art...

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...ive relationship when observing bullying and crime rates. Secondly, it was astounding to see the impact on students who did not have a good family structure and did not feel loved or cared for by both parents and the teachers. Not only did this contribute to issues of self harm, but also bullying and suicidal thoughts. Additionally this also contributed to youth having a low self control which leads to an array of delinquency.
Rather than adding a continuation of strict impractical and often time’s irrational forms of “no tolerance” policies and rules that create a strained environment in schools, we can learn from each of these theories and address the issues found in the studies from school structure down to family structure. Clearly this would be a difficult task but it would be very helpful in addressing the many issues juveniles face in schools and at home.