In the movie Scarface we view go in depth about some life events of Cuban refugee Tony Montana when he enters the United States and receives his green card. We also see what leads him to his criminal activities of becoming a national drug lord. In this film there are a number of different theories that can be applied. I will be using Cornish and Clarkes Rational Choice Theory, along with Robert Agnew’s Strain theory in order to analyze Tony’s reasoning behind committing these crimes. I will be using examples from the film Scarface in order to draw and link these theories with the film.
From Life to ‘Death Row Granny’ What comes to mind when thinking of grandmothers? Cookies, acts of spoiling, and love are just a few, but what does not come to mind may be something like arsenic killings. Yet, in Velma Barfield’s case, one might want to ponder this carefully. Obviously, arsenic poisoning is not something a normal grandmother would be known for, so it is not striking to assume some sort of strain took place in Barfield’s life.
The strain theory implies that crime may occur because of the stress or frustration placed on people when
The strain theory is relatively close to the social disorganization theory, regarding poverty rates, and unemployment rates within
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.
Due to Bender’s behaviour and personality, he is often alienated by those around him. Merton’s strain theory of behaviour states that deviance is a product of society itself and the conditions that it lays down for each individual. Each society has a certain set of goals and a means of achieving it however when an individual is unable to achieve them, they may resort to deviance (Haskings-Winner, Collishaw, Kritzer & Warecki, 2011). Bender who is unable to meet society’s expectation subtly portrayed by the other students of being academically inclined, popular or athletic, feels the need to go against society because he would not fit in our the school regardless. Moreover, Bender’s household is a distinct factor in his deviant behaviour.
For the general strain theory, the main limitations was the possible variation in evaluating an event or stimulus as a life strain or not. Gacy’s interpretation on what events and stimulus were strains on his life would be unknown, so it cannot be determined if a life strain is the reason Gacy committed crime. Though Gacy had strains at home within his family, it is allegedly said Gacy was quite popular in school. This means he would have had good bonds with his peers, but there is not enough evidence to show it could have made a difference. Lastly, Gacy’s childhood seemed apparent to have a vast amount of strains, however, when he became older, he left his family.
1. How does Strain Theory define and explain deviance? Strain theory defines deviance as the situation whereby there exists a gap or difference between societal success goals and the determined means available to the society for achieving these goals. In a society, individuals share similar goals towards success and thus have agreeable means of achieving the same, however, when such an agreement is foregone such a society has a high rate of deviance.
Rules and structure shape who we are, they allow us to channel and control our basic instinct in a way that lets society run smoothly without being subjected to great amounts of chaos. Without structure individuals can’t be trusted to put their selfishness within their human nature aside for the good of the society as a whole. I believe that humans initial instinct is masked by societal guidelines and without the pressure to follow these guidelines people would become absorbed with self-benefiting actions. If everyone is looking out for only themselves, no one is thinking about the bigger picture and how every person’s individual actions affect everything as a whole. History determines the future, and people’s actions in the past affect future
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.
Strain and Deviance: an empirical test of General Strain Theory of in a Philippine Public University LITERATURE REVIEW Theoretical Background During the past decades, various criminologists developed different theories in an attempt to explain the causes of crime within the society. In return they were successful, as of today it was adopted or accepted, indeed all of theories explain the root causes of crime. One of these theories is anomie or strain theory which originally argues that the lower class frustration to higher class causes crime (Merton, 1938) in attempt to explain why majority of the people who commits crime are lower class.
Many strain theorists recognize that the greatest amount of strain is evident in the lower class groups (Hagan, 2008; Siegel, 2011;
Albert Francis Charles Augustus Emmanuel Cohen presented the theory of gang constitution that used Merton’s strain theory as a basis for why individuals resort to such group behavior. There are five adaptions to strain and of the five Sanyika was proximately cognate to the adaptation of revolt, which is the most complex of the five adaptations. Strain is considered the primary source for the development of criminals. According to Cohen, delinquent youths begin to value destruction of property and skipping school, not because these behaviors lead to a payoff or success in the conventional world, but simply because they defy the conventional norms and laws as good, thereby psychologically and physically rejecting the cultural system that has been imposed on them without preparation and fair distribution of resources. (Tibbets, p. 116)
However, the social structure often fails in providing the means, thereby creating an imbalance in the fulfillment of the cultural goals. This imbalance that stems from the lack of necessary means to achieve socially accepted cultural goals leads to structural strain. The Strain Theory was propounded by Robert
Social disorganization and strain theory are comparable because of the environment factor, the culture conflict theory is different because it does not look at an environmental factor but rather the idea of mainstream society. The belief is based on having a poor socioeconomic status that is not accepted by society (Schmalleger, 2012). Strain theory is different in its specification of the type of social relationship that leads to delinquency and the motivation for delinquency (Agnew, 1992). Strain theory is the only theory that focuses explicitly on negative relationships with others and to argue that delinquency is the results from these negative relationships (Agnew, 1992). All three of the social theories rely on societal roles of groups, institutions, and their arrangements within society to provide the basis for criminological study.
