The General Strain Theory And Juvenile Delinquency

Another relevant theory in regards to the pattern of juvenile delinquency is Strain Theory. In 1938, Robert Merton developed the theory of Strain to describe how social structures within society may pressure citizens (low socioeconomic status) to commit crimes. Merton felt that too much pressure to achieve goals, such as financial well-being, led to behaviors such as selling drugs. Merton’s theory relates to juvenile delinquency in that adolescents might experience overwhelming stress or pressure in their peer groups to have more money, to fit in, or to be influential. These social stressors will perpetuate delinquency because the teens will want to participate in criminal activity to solve such problems. In 1992, Robert Agnew

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

The theory of General Strain is how the strain on an individual leads them toward criminal activities and behaviors. The main concepts of general strain theory explain how a negative relationship affects the individual and their future in the expansion towards delinquency. Negative or harmful relationships are defined as affiliations with others that are partake in similar criminal activity and how an individual believes they should be treated. The strain theory is broken down into three types: (1) Strain as the failure to achieve positively valued goals (Traditional Strain), (2) Strain as the removal of positively valued stimuli from the individual, and (3) Strain as the presentation of negative stimuli.

Agnew agrees with the core idea of classic strain theory. However, after further examination of his very own life and that of those around him, he found that “the perceived inability to achieve success through monetary means or middle class status was not a major stressor conducive to crime,” (Agnew, 2001, p.141). In fact, Agnew stated that the major strains conducive to crime are a bit more immediate in nature. To support this claim, psychological literature on aggression and stress suggest that strain involves more than the “pursuit of happiness” (Agnew, 1992). The loss of positively valued stimuli seems to be a larger contributor to juvenile negligence and delinquency.

When it comes to juvenile delinquency an adolescent personality is usually impacted from different factors such as early child hood experiences of witnessing a crime, seeing a violent act, being the victim of a crime, or being around others or family who engaged in criminal activity, these factors can either create an adolescent with a positive or negative attitude, or an anti-social behavior which could create a path for a delinquent behavior (Wilson, p. 34). A study has shown that family interactions accounts for about 40 percent of the cause of an adolescent with an anti-social behavior, the study also shown that aggressiveness which is a common trait of adolescent who engage in delinquent acts is usually created from peer influences (Wilson, p. 34).

Strain Theory could have a strong influence on a youth’s lifestyle and be a theory explaining why juveniles have turned towards delinquency as a building block in the direction of adulthood. The following essay will be introducing a belief on why strain theory is one of the foremost concepts leading to misbehavior in adolescents.

It makes sense to me that the precursor to crime would be caused by failure to achieve economic goals, failure to achieve non- economic goals, no positive stimuli, loss of loved ones, and the introduction of negative stimuli which may be arguments with parents, teachers, etc. It is logical that if negative events happen closer together, it would make matters worse. The theory states that the result of all this,

The thesis paper, Examining Juvenile Delinquency Contributors through Life-Course and Strain Theory, written by Caitlin Burns (2013), discusses the connection between life-course theory and general strain theory as an explanation to juvenile delinquency. Her paper goes on to discuss how the presence of strain theory in a juvenile’s school environment, family environment and peer groups, leads to delinquency. Burns states that, “There are several known contributors to juvenile delinquency, but the one that has shown the most significance is an adolescent’s commitment to school and the social environment that an individual develops while in this particular atmosphere” (Burns, 2013). In Burns (2013) paper, she also indicates that a juvenile’s peer group has been proven to be a contributor to juvenile delinquency, but that a juvenile’s school environment influences what type of peers to choose.

Out of all the theories in Criminal Justice, I think that the Strain Theory best explains juvenile delinquency. Why is that? Well the Strain Theory explains how there is a gap between culturally goals that causes frustration that leads to criminal acts. Most juveniles get in trouble with the law, because of shoplifting or some type of robbery. This comes from the conclusion of your economic status like higher, middle and lower class. It’s most common to find frustration in lower class because of lack of norms. For example a kid in a lower class area would most likely take something that’s not theirs, because they see others with something they like, but can’t afford it. Don’t get me wrong, this theory can go in place with the middle and upper

The question still remains as to the correlation between behavioral variables such as drugs, gang violence, unstableness of families, etc. and how they are important tools when explaining deviant behavior. These tools are often developed into theories in order to attempt an explanation and prevent initial and/or future deviant behavior in juveniles. All causation theories will be explained through the content of this research paper because no single theory is sufficient in trying to explain why juvenile delinquent behavior exists. However, this paper will significantly highlight on the psychological theories. Next, certain treatment and prevention interventions will be addressed as it relates to the attempts of controlling delinquency.

Theorists from this perspective look at the environment and sub-culture that a juvenile resides in. This perspective sees delinquency as a function of the surroundings or environment that a juvenile lives in. The Strain theory has been mainly applied to juvenile delinquency among lower-class boys. The central idea is that these young people share the value of success with the larger culture, but because of inadequate socialization, they are unable to effectively compete. This produces strain, which they seek to resolve. The Strain theory has its limitations however. It does not explain suburban delinquency for example.

     Some causes for conduct in adolescents are no discipline, unstructured discipline and a broken home. A broken home is one of the factors that can produce a delinquent child. A broken home reduces the opportunity for creating a strong attachment between child and parents and that reduces the parent’s ability to condition the child. Many theories concerning the causes of juvenile crime focus either on the individual or on society as the major contributing influence. Theories centering on the individual suggest that children engage in criminal behavior because they were not sufficiently penalized for previous delinquent acts or that they have learned criminal behavior through interaction with others.

The pressure creates corrective action, and delinquency is one response,” (Agnew, 1995, p.372). General strain theory considers how an offender might become motivated to commit a crime, but not necessarily the place and time one might do so. Another element of general strain theory concerns the way in which a person’s relationship to their parents and close associates might mediate how strain influences behavior. To model these effects, researchers would need to be specific about how such influences operate. They might also want to specify how a person's social network impacts upon them from a larger perspective.

There are many reasons why juveniles become delinquent. Stress is a huge factor when dealing with juveniles. The Strain Theory suggests that strain/stress and negativity may directly and/or indirectly lead to delinquency. Stain/stress lead to negative emotions which can fuel delinquency including violence, vandalism, truancy, illegal drug use, and theft. According to Sickmund & Snyder, males tend to be more aggressive and involved in violent crimes than females. A 2003 survey suggests that 33 percent of high school students have admitted to being involved in one or more physical altercations within the past 12 months. Of the 33 percent of students, males were substantially more likely to fight than females, and more likely to commit a violent act (Sickmund & Snyder, 2006).

Deviance among adolescents in our society has many different causes and multiple theories throughout the history of criminal justice have been developed to attempt to explain, prevent and reduce incidents of status offenses and juvenile delinquency. There are theories varying from individual, to social and environmental. All of these theories have their merits and contribute in one way or another to the advancement of the understanding of juvenile delinquency and the treatment and prevention of delinquency within our society. Those that have proven to be successful we have applied in our justice system while those that are proven over time to be ineffective or defective we have discarded. There is no single theory that applies to all delinquent behavior in all situations. It is best to determine what theory may work best in each specific case based on the individual and the specific situation. Dodge’s information processing theory of social problem solving (Crick and Dodge 1994) was developed by Kenneth Dodge in an attempt to explain the interaction between the child’s cognitive development and their social environment. This theory combines elements of both the individual and the social environment and examines how these two variables interact with each other to present a model for juvenile delinquency. During my investigation of this topic I discovered that an adapted model of Dodge’s theory existed that seemed to be more encompassing of the causes of juvenile delinquency,