Transcript Strain Theories continued

Strain Theories
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Anomie
Merton’s Theory
General Strain Theory
Institutional Anomie Theory
Relative Deprivation Theory
Strain Theory: R.K.Merton.
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Merton used Durkheim's idea about
anomie
Anomie is the state of normlessness
Rules of behaviour have broken down
Rapid social change
Personal life crisis
Egoistic, altruistic, and anomic suicide
Egoisitic suicide
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Egoisitic suicide resulted from too
little social integration
Durkheim discovered was that of
unmarried people, particularly
males, committed suicide at higher
rates than married people
Altruistic suicide
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Altruistic suicide, is a result of too much
integration
Individuals are so integrated into social
groups that they lost sight of their
individuality and became willing to
sacrifice themselves to the group's
interests
The most common cases of altruistic
suicide occurred among members of the
military
Anomic suicide
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Sudden changes on the microsocial
and macrosocial levels
War, crisis, divorce, death,
unemployment
Strain Theory: R.K.Merton.
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“Anomie is a state wherein society fails
to exercise adequate regulation of the
goals and desires of individual
members” (p.165)
in American society, there is a
disjunction between the sociallyproduced and encouraged ends or goals
and the means through which they
could achieve these desirable ends
Strain Theory: R.K.Merton.
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In simple terms, they were socialised
into the "American Dream" of health,
wealth, personal happiness
American society is structured to
ensure that the vast majority of people
could never realistically attain these
ends through the means that
American society provided in legitimate
ways - hard work
Merton’s theory
Because of this tension anomie
occurs
 In a situation whereby people
desired success - yet were
effectively denied it - he argued
that people would find other,
probably less legitimate, means
towards desired ends.
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Merton’s typology
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Merton elaborated five basic
responses to the anomic situation
which he claimed to see in American
society
He classified these types of
conformity and deviance in terms of
acceptance and denial of basic ends
and means
Merton’s typology
Response:
Means:
Ends:
1. Conformity
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2. Innovation
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3. Ritualism
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4. Retreatism
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Rejects means
Rejects ends
5. Rebellion
Merton’s Conformity
Conformity applies to
the law-abiding
citizen
These people accept
both socially-produced
ends and the sociallylegitimated means to
achieve them
Merton’s Innovation
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Innovation is deviant behaviour that
uses illegitimate means to achieve
socially acceptable goals
Drug crimes, property crimes
and some white collar crimes would
be examples of innovation
Merton’s Ritualism
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3. Ritualism might refer to someone
who conforms to socially-approved
means, but has lost sight of the ends
(or has come to accept that they will
never achieve them)
Such people are likely to be elderly
and they probably enjoy a reasonably
comfortable lifestyle.
Merton’s Retreatism
An example of
retreatism is someone
who "drops-out" of
mainstream society. The
drug addict who retreats
into a self-contained
world, the alcoholic who
is unable to hold-down a
steady job
Assessment
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Monetary success is the only one
motive mentioned by Merton
Some criminals are engaged into
deviant activities for no apparent
reason (enjoyable)
White collar crime is not explained
If the strains of life really operates as
suggested by Merton, why it is most
member of society engage in lawabiding activities
Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory
(1992)
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Original strain theory predicted a
concentration of delinquent behavior
in the lower class (monetary strain,
status frustration)
Research proved that delinquency was
also common in the middle and upper
classes (monetary strain cannot
explain)
Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory
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Strain for Agnew is neither structural
nor interpersonal, but emotional
Perception of an adverse environment
will lead to strongly negative emotions
that motivate one to engage in crime
Robert Agnew
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Believes that Anger has a
significant impact on all measures
of crime and deviance
Strain
ANGER
Criminal
Behavior
Robert Agnew’s GST
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Expands on traditional strain theory
Include all types of negative relations
b/w an individual and others
GST maintains that strain is likely to
have a cumulative effect on
delinquency after reaching a certain
threshold
Anger in your life
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Can you think of an negative event
that made you very angry?
How did you cope with anger?
Who helped you to cope with your
anger?
How often do you experience anger?
Three major types of strain
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Failure to achieve positively valued goals
(gap between expectations and actual
achievements, not always long-term)
Loss of positive stimuli (experiencing the
stressful impact felt before and after
moving, death of a relative/close friend)
Presentation of negative stimuli (peer
pressure, physical /emotional abuse)
Links Between Strain and Crime
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Anger was found to incite a person to
action, lower inhibitions, and create a
desire for revenge
Agnew especially stressed that
individuals who are subject to
repetitive strain may be more likely to
commit crime
Sources of Strain
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Social sources of strain (negative
interactions with other people)
Community sources of strain (some
communities increase the likelihood that
people get angry and frustrated and can be
more prone to crime
community level factors: economic
deprivation, family disruption, fear of crime,
child abuse, over crowding, bad housing)
Coping Strategies Other Than Crime
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Crime is not the only way that people
will respond to strain
There are three different types of
coping strategies that enable the
individual to deal with the strain in
their life through legitimate means
Cognitive
Emotional
Behavioral
Cognitive coping strategies
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Enable the individual to rationalize the stressors
in three ways (Agnew, 1992)
Minimize the importance of the strain by placing
less importance on a particular goal
Maximizing the positive while minimizing the
negative outcomes of an event. This is an
attempt to ignore the fact that there has been a
negative event
Accept the outcomes of the negative outcomes as
fair
Behavioral coping strategies
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Individuals may actively seek out
positive stimuli (Social supports from
friends and relatives)
Try to escape negative stimuli. In
addition, individuals may actively seek
out revenge in a nondelinquent
manner (Agnew, 1992:69)
Emotional coping strategies
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Relaxation methods
Sport
Meditation
Determinants of Delinquent Behavior
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If the initial goals and values of a
person are high and they have few
alternative goals to fall back on, then
the person may be more prone to
committing delinquent acts (beauty
queen)
Bad temper, previous delinquent
behavior, delinquent friends
Agnew’s Theory
Factors affecting
disposition to delinquency
Strain
ANGER
Constraints to delinquent
behavior
Criminal Behavior
Male Versus Female Strain and Crime
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Males and females have been found
to experience different types of
strain and different emotions
Sex differences in emotional response to strain
(Agnew and Broidy, 1997:281-283)
Female
Male
More likely to respond with
depression and anger
More likely to respond with
anger
Anger is accompanied by fear,
guilt, and shame
Anger is followed by moral
outrage
More likely to blame
themselves and worry about
the affects of their anger
Quick to blame others and are
less concerned about hurting
others
Depression and guilt may lead
to self-destructive behaviors
(i.e. eating disorders)
Moral outrage may lead to
property and violent crime
Sex differences in coping
strategies
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Research indicated that females employ escape
and avoidance methods to relieve the strain
Females may, however, have stronger relational
ties that might help to reduce strain (social
support)
Males are lower in social control, and they
socialize in large, hierarchical peer groups
where they need to maintain their status
Females form close social bonds in small
groups
Therefore, males are more likely to respond to
strain with crime (Agnew 1997).
Policy Recommendations
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Agnew proposed several different
programs to reduce delinquency which
have shown success after being
implemented
Policy Recommendations
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Family-based programs are designed to
teach the members how to solve
problems in a constructive manner, and
parents are taught how to effectively
discipline their children (Agnew, 1995)
This will reduce the amount of negative
emotions that result from conflict in the
family and will decrease the amount of
strain in the home
Policy Recommendations
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School-based programs seek to improve
relations in and between schools
Peer based programs seek to reduce the
amount of strain that an adolescent feels
as a result of relationships with peers
Relationships with peers can be negative
when the peers are delinquent or when
they are physically or verbally abusive
toward other peers
Critiques
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There is not much data to support
or refute it
Objective/subjective strain
Measurement of strain
Institutional Anomie Theory
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Messner and Rosenfeld (1997)
argued that the crime problem is
related to “American Dream”, which
they define:
“a commitment to the goal of
material success, to be pursued by
everyone in society under conditions
of open, individual competition”
Teamwork/individualism
Institutional Anomie Theory
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This exerts pressure toward crime
by encouraging an anomic
environment
“everything goes” mentality
Individuals as well as social
institutions are under the influence
of “American Dream” ideology
Family Institution
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Individualism and independence for
children
Children are cut off any financial support
very early (compare to other cultures)
Early work is encouraged
Family orient and train individuals for
better paying jobs
“Close ties” are sacrificed for the sake of
achievement
Education Institution
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Quantity of courses vs quality of studying
(written exams vs oral exams)
Results: in a couple of years students do
not remember much from the courses
they have taken
Education prepare and train individuals
for high-paying job
Religion has been undermined
“Value” of people is measured by their
material gain (Gates, Trump, etc)
Relative Deprivation Theory
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Messner and Rosenfeld, 1997
To fell anomie a person should see/feel
deprivation
People with the same social standing can
have different sense of deprivation
The poorest Americans are far richer in
terms of material possessions that the
average citizen of many third world
nations
Relative Deprivation Theory
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Relative Deprivation refers to the
economic gap that exists between
rich and poor who live in close
proximity to one another
Stanford vs WSU
Relative Deprivation Theory
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Inner-city inhabitants develop an increased
sense of relative deprivation because they
can witness well-to-do lifestyle in nearby
neighborhoods
People start question their place in the
reward structure of society
Sense of injustice is the source of strain that
can lead to criminal behavior