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Andrea Yates Rational Choice Theory

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When comparing rational choice theory to the Andrea Yates story it is evident that rational theory was in fact present throughout the duration of Andrea completing her heinous crime. According to the document provided via Investopedia, the rational theory could be defined as “... an economic principle that states that individuals always make prudent and logical decisions.” Throughout the case and its entirety, Andrea depicted characteristics of being fully rational and aware of her decisions. Several factors played a key part in determining whether or not Andrea Yates was rational at the time of the crime, factors such as; Andrea exclaimed that “she knew through a “feeling” that Satan wanted her to kill her children,” She struggled back and forth in her mind for one to two months about whether to take the lives of her children or herself. According to the rational choice theory document, …show more content…

Although there are numerous definitions for strain theory it is normally defined when one becomes strained or stress, which often times results to one committing a crime. According to Agnew 1992, often times strain theory is categorized into three separate categories. The categories are as follows, “The inability to achieve one goals, the loss of a stimuli (i.e the death of a friend or loss of possession), or the presentation of negative stimuli (i.e verbal and physical abuse). Andrea depicted step 2 of the strain theory throughout the case and its entirety by demonstrating that she was suffering from depression. Andrea was not only dealing with postpartum depression, following the birth of her fourth child Luke, following Lukes death Andrea experienced an unsuccessful suicide attempt. A few months later, Andrea lost her father and experienced her second suicide

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I think that Janie’s decision was neither completely a good nor a bad one. The quote, “Janie hurried out of the front gate and turned south. Even if Joe was not there waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good.” (Hurston 32). shows how Janie thinks she is making the right decision.

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Robert J. Hoshowsky wrote The Last to Die which summarizes the lives of Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas, who were the last two people to die due to capital punishment in Canada. Certain situations in Ronald Turpin’s life led him to commit a crime resulting in the use of capital punishment. Looking into his criminal lifestyle, the rational choice theory can explain some of the actions he felt he had to take and his role in society. Also, using the social learning theory can explain where he learned these behaviours from. Using these theory helps to explain Ronald’s criminal lifestyle and help people understand why he did what he did, although there are a few theories that can relate to Ronald’s lifestyle.

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The strain theory implies that crime may occur because of the stress or frustration placed on people when

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In his strain theory, Agnew identifies several other sources of strain besides Merton’s disjunction between goals and means (Hemmens & Walsh, 2014). In this perspective, strain includes the negative emotions that arise from social relationships. According to Agnew, strain occurs when from the removal of positively valued stimuli such as the loss of a romantic partner, the presentation of negative stimuli such as negative school experiences and the prevention or a threat to prevent an individual from obtaining a positively valued goal (Hemmens & Walsh, 2014). In the case of Lafeyette, his strain came from all three sources. The removal of positively valued stimuli for him was losing Terrence to prison and his two friends to death (Kotlowitz, 1991).

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The strain theory is relatively close to the social disorganization theory, regarding poverty rates, and unemployment rates within

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The general strain theory is a theory constructed by Robert Agnew. It states that violence; particularly criminal violence, is the result of straining emotions such as depression, frustration, and anger. These emotional strains arise from one of four sources: negative stimuli, removal of positive stimuli, shortcomings, and failure to achieve goals (Fox et al. 34). For Bundy, finding out that the woman who he believed to be his sister growing up was his mother was negative stimuli cognitively. He was in a sense hidden and probably felt a tinge of shame and rejection from his own mother.

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General Strain Theory also displays three different types of strain. These are experiential strain, anticipated strain and vicarious strain. (Wong, Lecture) While Nathan was undergoing experiential strain from his horrific home life, Erik endured vicarious strain from watching his friend having to deal with the circumstances he was suffering from. The immense strain that Nathan was under was what caused him to eventually snap and murder his mother.

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a. Use Strain Theory to define and explain the following: i. The theft of a loaf of bread by a hungry person Using strain theory, the theft of a loaf of bread by a hungry person can be explained as a situation where an individual employs different means of success of getting fed, one that is against the agreeable ways in the society of getting money and feeding themselves. ii. Alcoholics 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. iii.

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Cognitive perspective is how we encode, process, store and retrieve information, and Yates harshly interpreted and followed the Woroniecki’s extreme style of christianity. The Woroniecki’s often spoke of how children not raised correctly were bound to go to the devil, along with the mother who raised them, so Andrea processed this information in a way that led her to believe the only way to save her children was to kill them while they were still innocent. Yates’ following of the Woroniecki’s also goes along with the behavioral perspective that Yates’ killed her children because she learned the way the Woroniecki’s lived and interpreted christianity, and consequently followed in their extreme footsteps. She observed their behavior and in return displayed that severe behavior through murdering her children. From a biological perspective, the murder of her children can be blamed on her diagnosed postpartum depression, which lead her to engage in obsessive thoughts over her children along with constant depressive

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Timothy Brezina analyses the development of general strain theory by reviewing classical theories and it addresses the limitation of those theories. It goes in-depth to explain different strain theories and their founders such as Merton, Cohen, and Cloward and Ohlin who were influential through the 20th century. The source also explains the relationship between strain and offending and offers an extensive list of references. Iratzoqui, Amaia (04/2018).

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The Dred Scott decision of 1865 consisted of several implications on the status of free blacks in the United States, as well as concept of popular sovereignty, and the future of slavery in America. however, I believe the implications of the Dred Scott decision was for the status of free blacks in the United States due to the impacts it caused and the questions it rose. First of all, Dred Scott was an enslaved African American man from Missouri who moved in with his master Peter Blow, in Illinois, a free state. Dred Scott unsuccessfully fought for his freedom by claiming that being a resident in a free state made him a free man. However, in supreme court it was ruled that because blacks can not be recognized as citizens, they did not have

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1540 Words | 7 Pages

According to Robert Merton, strain theory explains the discrepancy between goals and the means to achieve them can cause “strain”. They can become alienated from society and have a greater tendency to engage in criminal activity” (Fleischer par.1). In the movie The Departed, strain theory used with Colin Sullivan when he bought the expensive apartment with a view. Sullivan is getting paid by Frank Costello to inform him about everything going on in the police department. Sullivan is driven by his desire to live a lavish lifestyle.

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Merton. The theory states that society puts pressure on individuals to achieve socially accepted goals (such as the American dream) though they lack the means, this leads to strain which may lead the individuals to commit crimes. Two major concerns in strain theory are the sources of the strain, stress or how people adapt to the strain. Positivism are theories of social and structure are strain theories.

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In 1985 Robert Agnew a sociologist come to an interest of studying the theory and finds a potential for the theory in explaining several causes of crime in society, but due to its limitation he developed and reformulated the theory to widen its dimension or scope. After revising the theory he come up into General strain theory of crime and builds its foundation in 1992. General strain theory argues that frustrations and anger leads someone to deviance and may result into committing a crime (Agnew, 1992). GST defines strains as negative life events and conditions which are commonly disliked by the people who experience it or negative experiences of a person in a given group (Agnew, 1992; 2001; 2006). Strain is often classified in two distinct types, the Objective Strain and the Subjective Strain.

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Rational action is seen in behaviors that are motivated by a analytical or reasoned evaluation of an individual, group, or organizations goals and how they pursue them. Non-rational action is when behavior is motivated by either emotions or traditions instead of thoughtful reasoning. The two articles, “So Eager for Grandchildren, They’re Paying the Egg-Freezing Clinic” and “In Choosing a Sperm Donor, a Roll of the Genetic Dice” there are prime examples of both rational and non-rational action.

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