Strain Theory and Juvenile's

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Strain Theory and How it Exerts Juveniles Donald J. Joslyn Tri-County Technical College CRJ-145-002 Juvenile Delinquency Mr. Bowen Strain Theory and How it Exerts Juveniles People may ask themselves why do juveniles commit crimes and how is it possible? The truth is that crime happens every day and in every part of the world. Many researchers study all types of criminals and the crimes that are committed. But what makes juveniles commit a crime? Looking at one theory behind what possess juveniles to commit crimes stood out to me, the general strain theory. This theory was recently improved and updated for its past critics by Robert Agnew. In the following paragraphs I will give a brief history of the General Stain Theory, Why I believe this theory has an importance towards juveniles and what I personally think of the theory at hand. Agnew’s General Strain Theory was revised from the original Strain Theory of Durkheim and Merton which was taken from the theory of anomie (Agnew and Passas, 1997:2-3). In 1897 Durkheim had seen anomie as the lack of an individual’s social norm and the missing link between an individual and their community (Durkheim, Emile (1897) Suicide). Due to what the evidence was based on and the current political stance of the 1960’s, “the popularity of the strain theory had lost interest” (Agnew and Passas, 1997:4-5). Although it became less popular Robert Agnew continued to research the Strain Theory and wrote many articles about how he thought strain was a cause to an individual’s strain in life and the link to crime. In 1992 Agnew and others renewed the strain theory and called it the general strain theory which now looked at the behavior of one who is coping with the problems related to the social strain (Schmalleger, 2012: 160). Recently Agnew had redefined the General Strain Theory with his ideas of how negative
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