Strain Theories - Criminology - Lecture Slides, Slides of Criminal Justice

Download Strain Theories - Criminology - Lecture Slides and more Slides Criminal Justice in PDF only on Docsity! Strain Theories 1. Anomie 2. Merton’s Theory 3. General Strain Theory 4. Institutional Anomie Theory 5. Relative Deprivation Theory Docsity.com Strain Theory: R.K.Merton. • 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 Docsity.com Anomic suicide • Sudden changes on the microsocial and macrosocial levels • War, crisis, divorce, death, unemployment Docsity.com Strain Theory: R.K.Merton. • “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 socially-produced and encouraged ends or goals and the means through which they could achieve these desirable ends Docsity.com Strain Theory: R.K.Merton. • 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 Docsity.com Merton’s typology Response: Means: Ends: 1. Conformity + + 2. Innovation - + 3. Ritualism + - 4. Retreatism - - 5. Rebellion Rejects means Rejects ends Docsity.com Merton’s Conformity Conformity applies to the law-abiding citizen These people accept both socially-produced ends and the socially-legitimated means to achieve them Docsity.com Merton’s Innovation • 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 Docsity.com Assessment • 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 law-abiding activities Docsity.com Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (1992) • 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) Docsity.com Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory • 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 Docsity.com Anger in your life • 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? Docsity.com Three major types of strain • 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) Docsity.com Links Between Strain and Crime • 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 Docsity.com Cognitive coping strategies • 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 Docsity.com Behavioral coping strategies • 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) Docsity.com Emotional coping strategies ¢ Relaxation methods * Sport ¢ Meditation Docsity.com Male Versus Female Strain and Crime • Males and females have been found to experience different types of strain and different emotions Docsity.com 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 Docsity.com Sex differences in coping strategies • 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). Docsity.com Policy Recommendations • 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 Docsity.com Critiques • There is not much data to support or refute it • Objective/subjective strain • Measurement of strain Docsity.com Institutional Anomie Theory • 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 Docsity.com Education Institution • 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) Docsity.com Relative Deprivation Theory • 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 Docsity.com Relative Deprivation Theory • Relative Deprivation refers to the economic gap that exists between rich and poor who live in close proximity to one another • Stanford vs WSU Docsity.com