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Social Strain Theory

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Why some people cannot escape from criminal activities while others never have any problems has been examined for decades. The study of criminology targets why individuals commit crimes and why criminals behave in certain situations. This criminology research helps to break down a true story on the film “Blow” which tells the story of George Jung, one of the most significant drug traffickers in the United States in the 1970’s. The film depicts several criminal theories on why George lived his life the way he did. This paper will explain the theories best noted in the film Blow about General Strain theory, Differential Association theory and Social Bond theory. These three theories help possibly explain why George became a criminal. General …show more content…

Merton developed social strain theory. Merton believed in the “American Dream,” but Merton realized that everyone wasn’t born with the same opportunities to attain monetary wealth and a comfortable lifestyle. According to Merton (2015), “cultural goals are widespread; the problem, however, is that the social structure restricts or eliminates access to approved modes of acquiring these symbols for a considerable part of the same population” (p.63). Directly speaking, people want to be wealthy and be able to afford a particular lifestyle. When society hinders these people from attaining wealth, either by lack of education, or lower paid jobs they will seek other means to acquire this wealth. Unfortunately, some people will select a deviant way of life. Merton states there are five adaptations of anomie, but the one that pertains most to this paper is innovation. Innovative people accept the goals of society but do not use authentic means to obtain their goals to acquire the monetary things in life that are important to …show more content…

George plainly sees that his dad has failed in his business and now older Mr. Jung is jobless. George, even though he is young, can understand that without a job, his family will struggle. George faces stress caused by the removal of positively valued stimuli, in this case being his mother. George’s mother leaves the family because she cannot handle George’s father filing bankruptcy and the family perhaps losing everything they own. Although George’s father loves his mother, the mother doesn’t have enough faith in her husband to stand by his side during this troublesome time. Furthermore, George was subjected to the strain caused by the presentation of negative stimuli. The negative stimuli would be his father losing the business, and all that encompasses. However, this may not necessarily lead directly to crime since George does not have financial obligations, but the misunderstanding from George’s youth can carry into his adulthood when George does gain financial

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People commit crimes for various reasons and many different factors contribute to a person’s mental state and behavior. There are numerous theories that attempt to explain why individuals and particular groups of people become criminals. Psychologist and psychiatrist use science and research to attempt to determine a person’s deviant behavior. A person’s mental state usually contributes to the causation of the types of crimes that they commit. The main character in the movie “Bernie” demonstrates characteristics that fit into the frustration-aggression theory, modeling theory, and behavior theory.

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While a few theories are not as regular, others have developed and are utilized as a part of numerous criminal reviews today. Cutting edge criminologists consolidate the most important aspects of sociology, psychology, anthropology, and biological theories to advance their comprehension of criminal behavior. Rational choice theory, psychological, biological, and strain theory are used to analyze the

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Robber barons, specifically Andrew Carnegie, an industrialist and John D. Rockefeller, a philanthropist, were the chosen, elite members of society according to the doctrine of Social Darwinism. Darwinism is when evolution occurs and the strongest organisms of an ecosystem survive and reproduce to outnumber the weaker, less fit organisms of an ecosystem. Similarly Social Darwinism follows the same concept, but in a capitalist sense of thought. Those who were able to exploit the Gilded Age’s laissez faire economy to their own benefit, like the robber barons Andrew Carnegie of Carnegie Steel and J. D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil, were the fittest members of society because they were able to survive in the grueling and ruthless free economy. By usurping all of the fresh yet unfit immigrants that were flowing into the States due to the rise of urbanization, these two men integrated these easily-manipulated people into their factories to augment their profits.

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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 lack of care and guidance that a mother should offer is hindered by the mutual addiction that they share. And much like Jared, she also delves deep into escapism, leaving the ones she was supposed to care for, vulnerable. What should have been care and responsibility turns into emotional turmoil and neglect, leaving lasting impacts upon Jared. In addition to the lasting effects of neglect and emotional turmoil, the effects left upon by Jared’s father play an equally important role. The absence of a father figure is extremely important and can be seen affecting Jared throughout the story.

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“Everything looks good on the outside, but in the inside it’s not”. “Gilded age critics argued that the concentration of wallet in the bank accounts of the rich robbed workers of just compensation and gave the few to much power. Andrew Carnegie one of the nations leading industrialists and among the richest Americans of the era defended the concentration of wealth” (Document 18-4 Gospel of Wealth). There was an inequality of wealth which the article Carnegie wrote The Gospel of Wealth explained that there is a gap between him and his workers and how Carnegie believes in Social Darwinism, survival of the fittest. Social Darwinism provided justification for the increasing society unequal of wealth being distributed to very few people and the poor weren’t as “fit” as the rich people.

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His areas of study are Juvenile delinquency, Youth violence and Criminological theory. The main argument of the source is that General strain theory provides and explanation of crime and delinquency and that it is the latest and broadest form of strain theory. General Strain Theory represents a revision and extension of prior strain theories. “General strain theory is distinguished from other criminological theories by the central role it assigns to negative emotions in the etiology of offending. It is also distinguished by the emphasis it places on particular strains, especially strains involving negative social relations “ (Brezina, 2018).

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The Vietnam anti-war movements had multiple purposes and the movements changed vastly over the course of the war. Not only just this, but the attitude of Americans views on the war and the anti-war movements changed as well. As time went on many saw the war as a symbol of government overreach and had an overall critique of United States foreign policy. Based on modern stereotypes it has been considered a young person’s protest but it goes much deeper than that. The war called to question the values of patriotism and the role, breadth, and legitimacy of the United States government.

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In criminology, differential association is a theory developed by Edwin Sutherland proposing that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. The differential association theory is the most talked about of the learning theories of deviance. (DAT). (Sutherland) (Sociological Theories of Crime and Their Explanation on Crime , 2007) Theories of criminality are most commonly derived from human behavior.

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General strain theory suggest discovering gender reforms in strains, negative emotions, and acclimatizing factors and by presenting whether and how these variables relate to criminal consequences. The results offer limited support for the principle’s theorized gender changes in sorts of strains that males and females experience. As expected consistent with the research, males are more likely to reported upper levels of teachers’ bodily penalty and illicit discrimination, and females reported upper levels of family conflict. Though, conflicting to the concepts of the general strain theory the expectation no major gender changes in financial strain, examination-related strain, and gender discrimination are initiated. Strain seemed to meaningfully

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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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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

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587 Words | 3 Pages

The education includes how to commit crimes and all the rationalizations for doing so. Criminal behaviors are reinforced by hearing them referred to in positive terms. Respect for social norms such as following the law is held in contempt by the group. Two of the nine propositions that Sutherland came up with to explain the Differential Association theory was that criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication and the principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups. These propositions are established in the movie Blow as follows.

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