Strain Theory Essay

504 Words3 Pages
Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory According to sociologist Robert Merton, societies have culturally defined goals and social structures that define the means of achieving them (institutional norms). Cultural goals are goals that are widely accepted in society, such as obtaining the American Dream. And institutional norms are the legitimate means one takes to pursue those cultural goals, such as an education. Social strain is the outcome if there is an imbalance of the two. He argues that if an individual’s opportunities to achieve these goals are blocked and if they cannot achieve them through legitimate means (institutional norms), then they will feel frustrated, which may lead to one to deviance. His theory is that the source of strain comes from the social order of a society. Conformity happens when there is a balance of both. Innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion are the outcome of an imbalance. This is structural strain with adaptations (Structural Strain Theories). A new and improved version of Strain Theory was proposed by Robert Agnew. Agnew developed a new version of strain theory, called General Strain Theory. It focused on individual-level influences of strain and tried to explain why strained individuals are more likely than non-strained individuals to commit crimes. Agnew states that there are three major types of negative relationships that cause strain. One, other people prevent an individual from achieving positively valued goals. Secondly, other people remove (or threaten to remove) positively valued achievements or stimuli from the individual. Third, other people expose (or threaten to expose) the individual to negative stimuli. He explains that strain increase the likelihood that a person will experience a variety of negative emotions from fear and frustration to anger (Cullen and Agnew 2003: 190-191). For Agnew,
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