For agnew, crime occurred when persons sought criminal means to cope with their negative emotions. This leads to strain which may lead the individuals to commit crimes, examples being selling drugs or becoming involved in prostitution, to gain financial security. While mertons theory was based on 20 th century america, it is transferable to any contemporary, western, developed capitalist society. Abstract general strain theory gst is the most comprehensive version of strain theory and can explain both instrumental and expressive. On the other hand, microlevel implications of anomie theory, often referred to as classic strain theory, have shaped studies of individual and group differences in criminal behavior within societies. Agnews general strain theory 2 robert agnews general strain theory is one of the most respected theories of crime in modern criminology.
Strain theory is a sociology and criminology theory developed in by robert k. Mertons strain theory is an important contribution to the study of crime and deviance in the 1940s it helped to explain why crime continued to exist in countries, such as america, which were experiencing increasing economic growth and wealth. With this premise, we explore the possibil ity that research interpretations differing conceptually from mertons original statement contribute to the recent empirical failure of strain theory. This general theory, it will be argued, is capa ble of overcoming the theoretical and empirical criticisms of previous strain theories and of complementing the crime. Robert k mertons strain theory explained sociology. Finding its theoretical lineage in strain models by merton 1938, cohen 1955, and. Cloward and ohlin 1960, agnews 1992 general strain theory gst. Agnews general strain theory university of illinois springfield. General strain theory gst argues that strains or stressors increase the likelihood of negative emotions like anger and frustration.
In simple terms, where societies measure success and, by. While durkheims concept of anomie was rather vague, merton explains the idea in quite a detailed way. Strain theory, violence, and aggression slocum major. However, strain theory has not always occupied a respectable position among scholars in the criminological community. For although structural strain is one way to explain why deviance occurs in the context of anomie, it is not the only way. We contend that scholars who are critical of strain theory should. Strain theory for merton deviance is the result of a strain between the goals that a culture encourages and how the structure of society allows them to achieve these things legitimately merton argued that in the usa the pursuit of the american dream leads to deviant and criminal behaviour. Allgemeine drucktheorie ist eine kriminalsoziologische.