More handpicked essays just for you.
General strain theory and its reactions
General strain theory and its reactions
Strength and weakness of social learning theory
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: General strain theory and its reactions
learning theory.
Agnew and Passas talked about the similarities between the macrolevel of anomie and control theory, but emphasized that the micro level theory of strain should be considered separate from control theory. Agnew also compared strain theory to control theory and social learning theory. The theories differ by the type of social relations that they stress and the motivations on which they are based. While control theory rests on the premise that the breakdown of society frees the individual to commit crime, strain theory is focused on the pressure that is placed on the individual to commit crime. Social learning theory is based on the forces from a group that lead to a positive view of crime. According to strain theory, individual
deviance is caused as a result of negative treatment from others, which then results in anger and frustration. Control theory, however, is based on the absence of significant nondeviant relationships, but social learning theory is based on positive deviant relationships (Agnew, 1992).
Both theories by Merton and Agnew are similar because their focus is that social situations and conflicts an individual’s comes in contact within his/her life, may produce crime by emphasizing the a goal of success, much more than the means to achieve it. With Merton’s theory he adopted Durkheim’s concept of anomie to explain deviance. Merton’s theory combined both structural and cultural factors. Merton insists that society promotes goals for their citizens and norms for other’s behavior in attempting to reach these goals. In Merton’s theory people do crime when they are unable to reach or accomplish goals. Merton’s theory also explains how an individual’s social structure prevents an individual from becoming economically fortunate. His theory of modern anomie and strain express that individuals respond to strain in 5 individual ways. Those five ways are conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. On the other hand Agnew general strain theory, feels strain comes from sources other than economic failure. Agnew general strain theory focuses on a few other types of strain and stress. Like the presentation of a negative stimuli, and the loss of a positive stimuli. Agnew feels that this sort of strain leads to a negative state of mind. The emotions like angry, frustration and fear, lead to crime and criminal behavior. One
The two theories I have decided to merge are Agnew’s General Strain Theory and Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory. I picked General Strain Theory because it does a good job at discussing some of the things that can trigger the release of a person’s negative emotions which in turn may lead to deviant behavior. I also decided to write about Social Bond Theory because it describes some of the factors that keep people from committing crime. Both of the theories have strengths and weaknesses individually, but when merged they help fill in each other’s gaps. (Agnew, 2011; Hirschi, 2011) +1 (888) 295-7904
...riminal activity. This is because individuals become enthralled with their status in the community and want to achieve it anyway possible. This type of social structure "produces a strain toward anomie and deviant behavior. The pressure of such a social order is upon outdoing one's competitors (Thio, 2006)." Anomie strain theory is a good but difficult theory to implement. It offers "a way of constraining crime by improving the legitimate life chances of those who may otherwise make the choice to innovate defiantly (McLaughlin, 2001)."
Theoretical Background During the past decades, various criminologists developed different theories in an attempt to explain the causes of crime within the society. In return, they were successful, as of today it was adopted or accepted, indeed all of theories explain the root causes of crime. One of these theories is anomie or strain theory which originally argues that the lower class frustration to higher class causes crime (Merton, 1938) in an attempt to explain why the majority of the people who commits crime are lower class. In 1985 Robert Agnew a sociologist come to an interest of studying the theory and finds a potential for the theory in explaining several causes of crime in society, but due to its limitation he developed and reformulated
The strengths that general strain theory has are the variety of different strains it provides (Agnew, 2013, p. 203). Another one of its strengths is the fact that it provides individual characteristics. Individual characteristics were important to present in this theory because it is primarily composed of micro-level components. By presenting a more detailed explanation of individuals, this led to the conclusion of what type of “individual’s are more disposed than others to respond to strains with crime” (Agnew, 2013, p. 210). Some people see crime as their only way out and others choose to commit crime and choose to associate with a criminal crowd. As for weaknesses in general strain theory, the only weakness I could think of is the fact that it is not macro-level based. If Agnew’s theory were to contain both micro-level and macro-level components, I believe it would be a harder theory for people to
Various theories have taken approach to this question however we shall take the perspective of Agnew’s general strain theory; to summarize Agnew claims he reasons that people commit crime as a response or coping mechanism
... people commit crimes and are not limited to one aspect like the original theory. For example, Merton strain theory just looked one aspect of blocked opportunities to unable achieve economic success. Differential Opportunity theory helped explain the different illegitimate means that causes people to commit crimes for example poverty and high concentrations of youth living in slums (Murphy & Robinson, 2009). Agnew General Strain theory takes a micro approach into looking at the different types of strain that causes people to commit crimes (Lilly et al.2010). Even though these theories explain certain aspects of what causes crime, it does not explain the sole cause of why criminal behavior occurs or why one commits different crimes. However integrated theories are helpful to understand certain aspects of why people commit crimes and engage in deviant behavior.
In classic strain theory it is said that, Classic strain theory focuses on that type of strain involving the inability to achieve success or gain a middle class status. General Strain theory focuses on a broad range of strains, including the inability to achieve a variety of goals, the loss of valued possessions, and negative treatment by others. General Strain Theory has been applied to a range of topics, including the explanation of gender, race/ethnicity, age, community, and societal differences in crime
General strain theory is a transformation of many theories into the best possible version of the theory. Agnew created a vision of society, race, gender, and strain that affect a lot of people how they cope with that strain is what determines their future. They found this and theorized this, including how the strains can begin and adding more of into those categories. What I focused on is the broad view on general strain theory.
This could explain the effect of strains on crime by taken this theory into account. Once strain causes bonds to weaken amongst conventional groups and institutions such as family, school, and peer networks will open up doors to delinquent behaviors, because by being in these social roles causes the person to regulate by role expectations.
Strain Theory: Society has values and goals that can be achieved through acceptable means. When individuals are unable to reach their cultural goals, they may resort to or be pressured by society to commit crimes in order to attain their cultural goals.
Strain theory means that social structures within society may pressure the individual to pursue their goals legally or illegally by committing crimes. This theory is divided by two concerns such as social goals that state people in the U.S desire wealth, a high paying job that would give them a good income, material possessions such as new cars, and other life comforts. Although these goals are common to people in all economic status, this theory implies that the ability to obtain these goals is class dependent. This leads to members of lower class to be unable to achieve these goals through acceptable standards set by society which builds up a feeling of frustration and anger. The other concern is based on this previous one because since their
Strain theories of criminal behaviour have been amongst the most important and influential in the field of criminology. Taking a societal approach, strain theories have sought to explain deficiencies in social structure that lead individuals to commit crime (Williams and McShane 2010). Strain theories operate under the premise that there is a societal consensus of values, beliefs, and goals with legitimate methods for achieving success. When individuals are denied access to legitimate methods for achieving success, the result is anomie or social strain. This often leads an individual to resort to deviant or criminal means to obtain the level of success that they are socialized to pursue. This is the basic premise of strain theory. This paper will explore the evolution of strain theories by first examining their intellectual foundations which laid the foundation for Robert Merton’s theories of anomie and strain. Merton’s strain theory will be discussed in detail including the modes of adaptation that people use when faced with societal strain. Finally, the paper will conclude with the strengths and weaknesses of Merton’s strain theory and an examination of the criminological theories and social policies it has influenced.
Merton’s strain theory was advanced by Robert Agnew. Agnew believed that anomie is a macro-level concept, while strain is the micro-level concept. According to the Merton’s strain theory, an increase in aspirations and a decrease in expectations should lead to an increase in deviance, however, this was not found to be the case (Agnew, 1985). There are
This theory tries to explain why there is a surge of crimes in the lower classes and poorer communities because they are trying to keep up with the majority of society. These individuals do not care if they have to break the law in order to get more means to stay even or somewhat even with the rest of society, just as long as they get it. It is the “strain” that individuals are put under that causes them to commit crimes in order to fit in with society. In most of these cases anger seems to play a big role, being frustrated not being able to compete against others that had a fair chance in life. (Robert Agnew’s Strain Theory, n.d.) They almost feel justified in the crimes that they commit because they feel as though society has pushed them to the point of no