The Enemy Within: General Strain Theory Analysis

The Enemy Within The Enemy Within is an episode of 48 Hours that covered the murder of a 49-year-old real estate agent in 1998. Vicki Robinson was a single mom living in Tampa, Florida with her two daughters, Michelle and Valessa. Valessa was Vicki’s problem-child, often spending time with older men, doing drugs, and committing other rebellious acts. One night, Valessa, her older boyfriend Adam Davis, and their friend Jon Whispel were high on LSD when Adam attempted to poison Vicki with a syringe of bleach. When that didn’t work, Vicki was stabbed to death. After the murder, the three stole Vicki’s van and started driving across the country to Texas, leaving a trail of evidence by using Vicki’s bank card along the way. Finally they were apprehended

According to Marshall B. Clinard and Robert F. Meier (2014, 78), “Anomie theory advances the core idea that elements in society’s structure promote deviance by making deviant behavior a viable adaptation to living in the society. The theory describes deviance as a result of certain social, structural strains that pressure individuals to become deviant.” Society’s basic structures, especially concerning class and economics, creates strain that people cannot escape from. Some of these strains, according to Liu, include failure to achieve goals, loss of positive stimuli, and presence of negative stimuli. When a person has to cope with this stress in their life, feelings of anger, frustration, and disappointment are created; these feelings can help shed a more favorable light on deviant behavior. The conditions around these strains that actually lead to the enactment of deviance include high levels of these strains, the idea that the strain itself is seen as unjust or undeserved, and personal experiences that illustrate that the deviant behavior being considered has relatively low risks and a possibility for high

Seth is from a lower-class family that lives in a poor community. He dreamed of being a doctor, but when he was not able to get the grades he needed to get into a good college, he had to let that dream go. Seth’s girlfriend became pregnant, and he realized that he was not going to be leaving his poor neighborhood anytime soon. Seth started looking for alternative ways to make the money he needed to support his family, and saw that plenty of people in his neighborhood were getting by just fine by dealing