James W. Clarke's Three Types Of General Strain Theories

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General strain theory - for each individual case, a persona may have strains on them that make them resort to crime. Extreme instances of attempting to assassinate president. “a range of strains or stressors contribute to crime, including strains involving the presentation of negative stimuli (e.g., verbal and physical abuse), the loss of positive stimuli (e.g., the death of friends and family), and the inability to achieve valid goals (e.g. monetary, status, and masculinity) James W. Clarke (1982) literary work on assassins proposes three types of assassins. Chart 1 defines the three types of assassins:

He also suggests 12 “situational indicators of dangerousness” for assassinators or would-be assassinators: suspicions behavior in proximity to the political figure , weapons possession, threats, ideological intensity, stalking, interest in victim, interest in assassins, occupational instability, transience, family estrangement, attention seeking, and suicidal tendencies. These indicators can help in determining whether a person really is dangerous or just emotionally unstable. They also can suggest anger and aggression towards a political figure as well as interpersonal trouble, strain, and depression. Situational crime prevention strategies have been used and can continue to be used in order to prevent assassination …show more content…

In January of 1994, Ronald Gene Barbour made a trip to Washington D.C. after failing to commit suicide, in which he decided he was going to kill President Bill Clinton (United States v. Barbour, 1995). He found out hat Clinton was in Russia at the time. Eventually Secret Service Agents received word on his attempt at President Clinton’s life and arrested him in which he was later convicted. Frank Eugene Corder flew a stolen Cessna plane onto the White House lawn in an attempt to assassinate President Clinton (Hoerl, Cloud, Jarvis, 2009). Corder died in the

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