Agnew's Strain Theory Of Crime And Deviance

Durkheim developed the first modern strain theory of crime and deviance. He believed that society caused strain that was felt in individuals due to desire-related frustrations. According to Durkheim, a strain can be defined as the difference between certain desires and the assumption that those desires will be attained. Strain then leads to anomie, which is the state of social norms regulating individual conduct that have broken down or are no longer effective as rules for behavior. Once these standards within society are broken, Durkheim believes it to lead to suicide or deviance. An example of Durkheim’s theory would be someone who is unable to afford a luxury item resorting to shoplifting in order to possess these items to fit in with their

He pressed that stress/strain produces negative emotions like anger or depression that encourages delinquent behavior as well as a lack of coping mechanisms. Agnew found in a study that juveniles who are in high in negative emotionality and low in impulse control were more likely to cope with strain in a deviant manner, and also found that exposure to delinquent peers in those experiencing strain increases deviant and criminal responses to strain. Agnew’s theory is essentially a generalized theory of Merton’s theory and provides a broader view of the contributors of stress. There are many examples that could represent Agnew’s theory, including a student who experiences bullying at school every day acting aggressively and committing vandalism on school

Strain theory is general is best applied to lower class struggles and doesn’t tend to offer any stable explanations for why white-collar crime exists. However, this theory is slightly addressed with Agnew’s theory which is why the theory was created much broadly than Merton and Durkheim’s. Agnew’s general strain theory presented multiple strain-producing types that can result in the chances of criminal behavior this theory was the most important and influential out of all the theories and countered Merton’s classic theory (Hosier & Hosier). Agnew identified types of general strain as failure to achieve positively valued goals, removal of positive stimuli, and the presentation of negative stimuli (Hosier, Ch. 5 Pt. 2 Lecture) Agnew was progressive in his points that stated there were various forms of strain that caused people to experience negative emotion but still does not account why for why people deal with the consequences of strain differently and now everyone who experiences strain or stress resort to delinquency, and how some individuals are capable of positive coping mechanisms. Though there are some holes throughout all of the strain theories, with Agnew’s being the must applicable, I do think the theories proved to beneficial to the field of criminology, especially Agnew’s theory.