What is strain theory?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Strain theory sees delinquency as a form of adaptive, problem-solving behavior, usually committed in response to problems involving frustrating and undesirable social environments. Classic strain theory was developed by Robert K. Merton, who suggested that there is a disjunction between legitimate goals, which everyone desires, and socially approved means to success, which are not equally available to all members of society. When individuals are pressed to succeed in socially approved ways when they lack the tools necessary for such success, strain is produced, and crime and deviance may be seen as alternative means to success. Merton also stated that not everyone accepts the legitimacy of social approved goals. Merton depicted five modes of adaptation, or combinations of goals and means, with conformity being the most common and innovation the mode most associated with crime.

Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld's relative deprivation theory is a contemporary version of Merton's strain theory. Relative depravation is the economic and social gap that exists between rich and poor who live in close proximity to one another. Messner and Rosenfeld suggest that inconsistencies in the ability to achieve the American dream are to be blamed for most crime. Judith and Peter Blau suggest that people assess their position in life by comparing themselves with things and people they already know. Relative deprivation creates feelings of anger, frustration, hostility, and social injustice on the part of those who experience it.

Robert Agnew's general strain theory (GST) suggests that crime is a coping measure that helps those who engage in it to deal with the socioemotional problems generated by negative social relations. Strain occurs when someone prevents an individual from achieving positively valued goals, removes positively valued stimuli, or presents negatively valued stimuli. GST expands upon Merton's strain theory in several ways.

All strain theories appear to share at least two central explanatory features. They focus on negative relationships with others and they argue that adolescents are pressured into delinquency by the negative affective states that often result from negative relationships.