Strain Theory Definition

Sanyika Shakur tells his life story in detail in his book, Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member. He tells how he lived from a very young age and survived the gang life in South Central L.A. during the 1960’s and 1970’s, which was during the startup of the Crips. He was born Kody Scott and he was born into a very poor family. He had an absent father and was therefore raised by a single mother. At the very young age of eleven Kody Scott turned his life over to the Crips. The Crips are a gang that is predominantly African American and the group is known to be one of the largest and most violent gangs in the United States. What enticed him to the Crips was the respect and glory that bangers received and the unity of the Crip set.

The purpose of the United States Sentencing Commission is to “establish sentencing policies and practices for the federal criminal justice system that will assure the ends of justice by promulgating detailed guidelines prescribing the appropriate sentences for offenders convicted of federal crimes.” (Mustard 289) When it comes to the sentencing process, data is collected about the individual’s offense and criminal records to determine the offense level and criminal history score. Once they find those two scores that then indicate a range of sentence lengths. With certain circumstances, the judge can depart from the guidelines and issue a sentence that either exceeds the maximum or falls short of the minimum required by the guidelines. Once the sentencing range is determined, courts must adhere to the following constraints: “In determination of the sentence to impose within the guideline range, or whether a departure from the guidelines is warranted, the court may consider, without

General strain theory was developed by Robert Agnew. There are three major categories in the types of General strain theory: Failure to achieve positively valued goals, the loss of positively valued stimuli, and the presentation of negative stimuli. A positively valued goal has three sorts and those are money/economic success, status and respect. Lack of money causes strain because it is not obtainable through legitimate means. Strain will result from the lack of autonomy disproportionately affecting adolescents and the poor because of their lower position in society. Those three types of strains will increase the likelihood of experiencing negative emotions in proportion to the duration of stress. The links between strain and crime is that

After Robert Agnew introduced the General Strain theory in 1992, he received several support from researchers regarding of his theory including himself. Broidy and Agnew (1997) conducted a study on why the crime rate is higher among males and why also females engage in crime. Broidy and Agnew (1997) hypothesized that males are always subject to different types of strain that would result to serious crime and also males are always subject to financial strain and interpersonal conflict that would lead into violence. Broidy and Agnew (1997) found that females commit crime when they are restricted of conversation, physical and emotional expression, social life and others.

Sentencing disparity within the American Judicial system is a problem that exists across the nation. According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, disparity means the markedly distinct in quality or character. Many times, disparity is used in conjunction with discrimination as if the two words mean the same, but they do not. Disparity will include a difference in treatment or outcome but is not based on an opinion, bias or prejudice. Within the United States there are several types of disparity that exist within sentencing and these inconsistencies can vary from state to state, judge to judge, and from individual from individual.

Elijah Anderson, a Yale professor, developed the concept or theory entitled the “code of the street” which explains the reasoning for high rates of street violence among African-American juveniles in a Philadelphia community. The “code of the street” is the way of life for many living in poverty-stricken communities which attempt to regulate behaviors. Anderson observed that juveniles in inner-city neighborhoods who are exposed to racial discrimination, economic disadvantages and alienation from mainstream society may lead violent behavior. The strain, social learning, and labeling theories are all directly related to Anderson’s work.

There are many theories that suggest that crime is constructed socially, or is a product of the society in which the crime is committed. One such theory, proposed by Robert Merton, is known as strain theory. While strain theory is a useful model for explaining how societal values can drive people to commit crimes, it has several flaws and does not focus on how laws are made and how this contributes to the formation of crime. While Merton suggests that laws are created from consensus within a society, it will be argued that strain theory can also support the idea that laws are a “product of conflict” (Hagan 5).

Throughout this semester, we have covered various criminological theories along with their strengths and limitations. These theoretical perspectives provide possible explanations to why individuals commit crimes. In addition to, these theories are indirectly woven within cultural objects such as song lyrics, movies, books, and television. For my cultural object, I chose to analyze a book titled; There Are No Children Here, that encompasses a variety of criminological theories. However, in this paper I will examine how Merton/Agnew’s strain theory and its assumptions are illustrated within the context and characters in this book. Specifically, I will focus on Lafeyette,

Using strain theory, an alcohol has ultimately rejected the society’s goals of conforming to the societal values such as happiness and a stable job, such an individual essentially rejects the goals because they have been ultimately been unable to live up to the society’s standards.

People always wonder what means make people feel they need to commit crime? Do they want to? Do they want to hurt others? Why do they do it? Many criminologists have pondered this question, and have come up with many different theories to answer the age old question of why? Robert Agnew created general strain theory (GST). According to Agnew general strain theory is a hypothesis to explain why offenders have committed crime due to pressures or strain on them to counteract negative emotions. Agnew defines strains as any sort of situation that causes stress on the individual. This could be death in the family assault, loss of job, injury, financial hardships, or something else. There are two types of strains he focuses on. A vicarious strain

Pressured Into Crime: An Overview of General Strain Theory by Robert Agnew provides an overview of general strain theory, one of the leading explanations of crime and delinquency, developed by author Robert Agnew. Written to be student-friendly, Pressured Into Crime features numerous real-world examples, insightful and colorful quotes from former and active criminals, clear summaries of major points, and challenging review and discussion questions at the end of each chapter.This book provides the following:* It compares and contrasts GST to other leading theories of crime, including biopsychological, control, social learning, routine activities, and social disorganization theories.* It describes the evidence on GST, including the most current

Timothy Brezina is from Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University. He gained his Ph.D from Emory university. His areas of study are Juvenile delinquency, Youth violence and Criminological theory. The main argument of the source is that General strain theory provides and explanation of crime and delinquency and that it is the latest and broadest form of strain theory. General Strain Theory represents a revision and extension of prior strain theories.

I agree with your point on how the Strain Theory shows how America really does push people to do crimes. When you think and it no reasonable person wants their family to go hungry or lack shelter, so they commit crimes to which they believe is there only hope in order to provide some type of living. But, I do think it's more than the economy that pushes people to the streets. I believe it has to do more with the society as a whole that needs to understand why people commit crimes. More so, instead of just being about punishment we need to be more about rehabilitating people rather than punishing people for mostly non-violent

One critique of the strain theory is how it overemphasis the position of the social class in regards to crime and deviance. As we know, the strain theory applies mainly to the American lower class as they struggle the most. Our lower class are faced with the lack of resources to help them reconcile their goals. However, by looking at the variation of deviant and criminal behavior, the strain theory does not adequately account for any type of crimes besides the normal street or neighborhood crimes. Additionally, crimes that are considered as being white collar, in which they are known in our middle and upper-classes.

The structural strain theory was developed by sociologist Robert K. Merton as part of the functionalist perspective. Strain occurs when individuals find it hard to achieve cultural goals through institutionalized means (Merton, 1938). This theory suggests that there are five responses to strain, which include conformity, ritualism, innovation, retreatism and rebellion (Andersen and Taylor, 2009). The responses are developed based on two factors, which are, first, whether the individual accepts or rejects the cultural goals of the society and second, whether the individual accepts or rejects the instituitionalized means of achieving them.