Agnew's General Strain Theory Research Paper

In today’s time it seems that the world has become crazier by the day. It seems that it is almost monthly that the Islamic State known as ISIS and its followers has perpetuated some massive terrorist attack. The attacks are coming faster and in greater than ever before from Brussels, Paris, and even San Bernardino, Islamic terrorists are causing havoc in the western world. Unfortunately these not the only type of terrorists the United States has to worry about. Another type of terrorism would be racially motived attacks. One of the reasons for this is the recent wave of riots in major cities of Baltimore and Ferguson from people who have perceived wrong doings afflicted upon their communities by the police, which has caused a negative counter angry reaction from others around the nation. This creates the environment for racially motive terrorist acts to occur. The most notable is the mass shooting of the Mother Emmanuelle AME church …show more content…
In this paper the details of the shooting will be explained moment by moment in one of the scariest six minutes in Charleston’s history. Then Agnew’s general strain theory will be explained and how it relates and applies to the shooting. Then finally everything will be concluded.
General Strain Theory
To start the explanation of Agnew’s general strain theory needs to be addressed. General Strain Theory, according to Agnew (Higgins, Piquero, and Piquero, 2010) in individuals have three potential forms of encounter strain. The first was failure to achieve positively valued goals. The next was the appearance of a harmful stimulus. The last one was the elimination of a positively valued stimulus. On the individual level they will try to deal with strainful events that provoke emotional reactions, such as anger, rage, depression, and fear. These reactions then activates potential coping