Strain Theories

1. Merton’s Theory 2. Agnew’s General Strain Theory

American Dream

In simple terms, we are socialized into the "American Dream" of health, wealth, personal happiness

American society is structured to ensure that the vast majority of people could never realistically attain these ends through the means that American society provides in legitimate ways - hard work

Strain Theory: R.K.Merton.

Merton’s Anomie

Anomie is a disjunction between the socially-produced and encouraged ends or goals and the means through which people can achieve these desirable ends

Merton’s theory

Because of this tension anomie occurs

When a desired success is denied, people would find other, probably less legitimate, means toward desired ends.

Merton’s typology

Merton elaborated five basic responses to the anomic situation which he claimed to see in American society

He classified these types of conformity and deviance in terms of acceptance and denial of basic ends and 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 to the law-abiding citizen

These people accept both socially-produced ends and the socially-legitimated means to achieve them

Merton’s Innovation

Innovation is deviant behaviour that uses illegitimate means to achieve socially acceptable goals

Drug crimes, property crimes and some white collar crimes would be examples of innovation

Merton’s Ritualism

3. Ritualism might refer to someone who conforms to socially-approved means, but has lost sight of the ends (or has come to accept that they will never achieve them)

Such people are likely to be elderly and they probably enjoy a reasonably comfortable lifestyle.

Merton’s Retreatism

An example of retreatism is someone who "drops-out" of mainstream society. The drug addict who retreats into a self-contained world, the alcoholic who is unable to hold-down a steady job

Merton’s rebbellion

Political deviance is a good example of the rebellion response, whether this is expressed in terms of working for a revolutionary group or through political terrorism

Assessment

Monetary success is the only one motive mentioned by Merton

Some criminals are engaged into deviant activities for no apparent reason (enjoyable)

If the strains of life really operates as suggested by Merton, why most members of society are engaged in law-abiding activities?

Agnew (1992) and GST

General strain theory (GST) Agnew postulated that strain does not

need to be specifically tied to economic status because it is actually a psychological reaction to any perceived negative aspect of one's social environment

GST

Hypothetically, individuals from all social classes could engage in criminal behavior because they could all experience negative emotions arising from strain

Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (1992)

Anger has a significant impact on all measures of crime and deviance

ANGERCriminal Behavior

Strain

What are Strains?

Strains refer to events or conditions that are disliked by most individuals

Three major types of strain Failure to achieve positively

valued goals Loss of positive stimuli Presentation of negative stimuli

Failure to achieve positively valued goals

Gap between expectations and actual achievements (not always long-term)

Loss of positive stimuli

Moving to a new city/school Parental divorce Death of a relative/close

friend Break Up

Presentation of negative stimuli

Peer pressure Physical /emotional abuse) Stress, bullying and depression

ranked one, two and three respectively in a list of incidents as reported by elementary, middle and high school students.

Top Ten Problems as Reported By U.S. Students*

I ncident Type Number of Incidents

Percentage of Total Incidents Reported

1. Stress 910 15%

2. Bullying 588 10%

3. Depression 452 8%

4. Family Problems 257 4%

5. Fighting 216 4%

6. Peer Pressure 185 3%

7. Drugs 140 2%

8. Cheating on Schoolwork 116 2%

9. Cutting/Self-Injury 108 2%

10. Suicide 107 2%

As reported by students enrolled in schools using AnComm’s ‘Talk About It®’ anonymous online reporting service. The annual AnComm ‘Talk About It®’ Report sample includes more than 70,000 students enrolled in 52 schools across 12 states.

GST

While GST posited that each type of strain ultimately lead to deviance for slightly different reasons, all three types were thought to increase the likelihood that an individual would experience negative emotions in proportion to the magnitude, duration, and recency of the stress

Agnew’s Theory

Factors affecting disposition to delinquency

Criminal BehaviorANGER

Constraints to delinquentbehavior

Strain

Links Between Strain and Crime

Anger was found to incite a person to action, and create a desire for revenge

Crime allows individuals to obtain revenge against those who have wronged them

Crime may allow individuals to alleviate their negative emotions

Coping with strain through crime

Why are some people more likely than other 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 few

alternative goals to fall back on, then the person may be more prone to committing delinquent acts

Coping Strategies Other Than Crime Crime is not the only way that people

will respond to strain There are three different types of coping

strategies that enable the individual to deal with the strain in their life through legitimate means

A. CognitiveB. EmotionalC. Behavioral

Cognitive coping strategies

Enable the individual to rationalize the stressors in three ways (Agnew, 1992)

Minimize the importance of the strain by placing less importance on a particular goal

Maximizing the positive while minimizing the negative outcomes of an event. This is an attempt to ignore the fact that there has been a negative event

Accept the outcomes of the negative outcomes as fair

Behavioral coping strategies

Individuals may actively seek out positive stimuli (social support from friends and relatives)

Try to escape negative stimuli In addition, individuals may actively

seek out revenge in a non-delinquent manner (Agnew, 1992:69)

Emotional coping strategies

Relaxation methods Sport Meditation

GST and gender differences in crime

1) The levels and types of strain could be different for girls and for boys

2) Boys and girls may have different responses to the same strain

3) Gender variation in conditioning effects (gender differences in dealing/coping with strain)

The levels and types of strain

Boys are more likely than are girls to experience strain because of negative peer relations that are marked by conflict, competition, jealousy, and imbalance

Girls are especially susceptible to strain caused by problems in forming and maintaining positive relationships with family and friends

Different responses to the same strain

Consistent with gender socialization, when facing stressors, males would be more likely to behave aggressively

Females would be more likely to engage in more passive and self-destructive forms of delinquency, such as running away form home, alcohol use, etc.

Sex differences in emotional responses

Female Male

More likely to respond with depression and anger

More likely to respond with anger

Anger is accompanied by fear, guilt, and shame

Anger is followed by moral outrage

More likely to blame themselves and worry about the affects of their anger

Quick to blame others and are less concerned about hurting others

Depression and guilt may lead to self-destructive behaviors (i.e. eating disorders)

Moral outrage may lead to property and violent crime

Sex differences in coping strategies

Females employ escape and avoidance methods to relieve the strain

Females have stronger relational ties that might help to reduce strain (social support)

Males are lower in social control, and they socialize in large, hierarchical peer groups where they need to maintain their status

Therefore, males are more likely to respond to strain with crime (Agnew 1997).

Empirical support

Numerous tests of GST had also examined the relationship between strain and negative emotion, yielding mixed results

Several studies had found strain-induced anger to be the primary negative emotion to exert a significant effect on deviance (Broidy, 2001 and Piquero and Sealock, 2000).

Policy Recommendations

Agnew proposed several different programs to reduce delinquency which have shown success after being implemented

Policy Recommendations

Family-based programs are designed to teach the members how to solve problems in a constructive manner, and parents are taught how to effectively discipline their children (Agnew, 1995)

This will reduce the amount of negative emotions that result from conflict in the family and will decrease the amount of strain in the home

Policy Recommendations

School-based programs seek to improve relations in and between schools

Peer based programs seek to reduce the amount of strain that an adolescent feels as a result of relationships with peers

Relationships with peers can be negative when the peers are delinquent or when they are physically or verbally abusive toward other peers