What Are The Strain Theories Explain Crime?

Criminological Analysis Robert Merton’s strain theory is based on that crime is a result of a strain between economic classes. His theory assumes that people are motivated to gaining the American dream of a comfortable lifestyle but some people find it hard to go through traditional means to achieving that lifestyle. Society sets these high standards through the media and marketing that are unrealistic to the average American. Merton has 5 key different characteristic categories that society adapts in setting the goal and achieving the goal. The first is conformity.

Nearly a thousand years ago, knights and samurai were the military forces in Europe and Japan. During the time period 1066 to 1868, knights and samurai formed the military society in both Japan and Europe (Doc. 2). Although it seems like they are similar, the differences between knights and samurai outweigh the similarities, such as the codes, armor, and their training.

The strain theory is one of the first theories to draw attention to the social aspect of crime.

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,

In 1674, Nat Bacon arrived in Virginia from England and he also received a council seat at the same time. Because offices had changed of navigation acts that tobacco prices steep fell in price, and the reason that the grain crop failed and increased taxes, the vast population of farmers and small plantations in Virginia faced bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Berkeley, who was the viceroy of Virginia, became arbitrary and peremptory that the rules of the vote were also very rigor. By 1676, tensions of people in Virginia reached the peak and broke out. The immediate cause of Bacon rebellion the Indian attack on the frontier villages in order to recapture the land that had been lost. Bacon asked Berkeley to punish the Indians but he was refused. In the

Researchers are constantly looking for explanations for criminal patterns and crime rates among juveniles. They have presented many theories to serve as such explanations with strain theory being one of them; however, like many other theories, strain theory was pushed aside decades ago. It was not until recently that this theory was given new life by criminologist, Robert Agnew. Robert Agnew introduced this new development as the general strain theory. GST was the first supposition that was not tied to social class or cultural variables as it was in previous implications of Émile Durkheim’s anomie theory. Instead, Agnew’s theory refocused on societal norms that affect juveniles.

Merton’s anomie/strain theory was a very popular explanation for crime and deviance during the 1950’s and 1960’s. (Paternoster, Bachman 2001) Its popularity began to diminish in the late 1960’s due to the theories lack of empirical evidence. The theory did

The two theories focus on somewhat different features of the social environment and they offer different reasons why social environments cause crime and deviance. Both theories also provide information explaining individual differences in crime while others attempt to explain group differences in crime (Agnew, 2015). Strain theory states that social structures within society may pressure citizens to commit crimes. Strain can be seen as structural, which alludes to the processes at the societal level that flows down and affects how the individual interprets his or her needs and wants. Strain can also be seen as individual, and this refers to the frictions and pains an individual can experience when he or she is seeking out ways to satisfy their individual needs.

The second theory I would like to discuss is the Strain theory. The strain theory basically states that crime breeds in the gap, imbalance, or disjunction between culturally induced aspirations for economic success and structurally distributed possibilities of achievement. The theory assumes fairly uniform economic success aspirations across social class and the theory attempts to explain why crime is concentrated among the lower classes that have the least legitimate opportunities for achievement. It is the combination of the cultural emphasis and the social structure which produces intense pressure for

After reading Scarver’s letter and learning more about his childhood and upbringing, I believe Robert Merton’s Strain Theory can help explain some of the early stages of Scarver’s criminality. According to an article published by the University of Minnesota Duluth, Robert Merton wrote an article in the 1940s claiming that biology cannot be the leading cause of crime because biological theories do not explain why crimes and deviance differ from one society to the next. He was interested in understanding why marginalized groups of a society had outstandingly higher rates of deviance than the majority groups of the same society. Merton uses Emile Durkheim’s concept of anomie, but slightly changes the meaning to fit his theory. Durkheim used the term anomie to describe a situation in which cultural norms fall apart because of a dramatic change in the society. Merton, on the other hand, used anomie to refer to the disconnect marginalized groups have between typical cultural goals and the typical means to achieve them (“Anomie”, n.d.).

Strain theory and New Deviancy Theory (NDT) are mirror images of those above. Strain theory understands human nature to be socially constructed, where, committing a crime is produced by society not from individual instincts, favouring a deterministic perspective but also recognising that individuals rationalise from inside their determined position to achieve their aspirations. However, methods of innovation, ritualism, retreatism, or rebellion are not included under human rationality. Combining voluntaristic and determinacy is a main feature in NDT, although, they argue that while individuals are born free, they lose their agency in societal frameworks that manage behaviour; the state. The problem with this is that it ignores class conflict and therefore denies the basic causes of crime.

Introduction: Throughout history there have always been many different theories of crime and why people commit crimes. In the late 1930s a new theory rose to the forefront; this theory was called the anomie theory. Anomie means a lack of ethical standards. The anomie theory was proposed by Roberton Merton. It stated that society, as a whole, generally shares the same goals relating to having success in life; whether that is having a family, wealth, power, or just happiness. Society generally agrees that these are things that are to be sought after. Furthermore, Merton proposed that society, as a whole, also has a list of generally accepted ways to achieve such goals (Merton, 1938). Criminal activity, such as robbery, murder, and corruption, are among the things that are not accepted by society as appropriate means to achieve these goals. Merton’s anomie theory was built upon in 1992 by Robert Agnew who developed the general strain theory. General strain theory argues that when members of society are unable to achieve the general goals that society has set forth, they will, in order to avoid further rejection, further alienate themselves from society. Agnew also argued that if these individuals feel as if their shortcomings were a result of their environment failing them they will likely develop very negative feelings towards society, causing them to

The strain theory not only focuses on sociology but criminology as well. It states that individuals who lack means to be successful will find other outlets, such as dealing drugs, to help compensate for lack of financial stability. If the government would focus on supporting the correctional system and helping to rehabilitates their inmates, the recidivism rate would decrease drastically. By decreasing the recidivism rate, this would also successfully re-enter felons back into society and would decrease crime rates within America. This will also primarily affect their offspring who are also affected by crime in the theory to decrease their chances of entering the correctional system. An example, of a crime that is on the macro level within

Anomie theory posits that US society focus heavily upon monetary success, but places little emphasis upon how this success is obtained. Strain theory proposals a very similar concept, but focus upon smaller units within society. It argues that while everyone aims to reach the middle class standard of success, people in some groups will be unable to achieve it via legitimate channels. These theories suggest that people how commit crime are trying to accomplish the

Crime is a socially constructed phenomenon. It is not static but dynamic and is defined into existence. It changes over time and place. For example, early definitions of crime such as classicism defined individuals as rational, free and responsible for their own actions. The emergence of positivism was an attempt to bring scientific methodology to criminology. Positivists believe in objectively quantifying cause and effect. In the early twentieth century a sociological lens was applied. Functionalist sociologists such as Durkheim argued that crime had a positive function for society by reinforcing societal norms and values (Ziyanak and Williams 2014). Anomie and strain theory proposed later by Robert Merton examined how poorer classes experienced frustration through lack of opportunities leading to strain. There are many others including labelling, control and cultural deviance, however; this shows that our understanding of criminology is not static and like crime itself it changes over time and place.