Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory Defined and Broken Down for a Simple and Better Understanding
Verenisse Garcia – A00013982
Texas A & M International University
Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory
Defined and Broken Down for a Simple and Better Understanding
Discussion
In the 1990’s, Robert Agnew’s came up with the General Strain Theory, also known as, GST. To better understand where the theories derive, we need to understand that criminology is defined as empirical and interdisciplinary science, which deals with the study of crime, the offender’s person, the victim and the social control of guilty behavior, and that it tries to provide valid and contrasted information about the genesis, dynamics and main variables of the …show more content…
In the psycho-social field for strain, we mean a change, in a subject or in a situation, due to the pressure of one or more external forces. It's a very similar concept to stress. But while the former is due to the pressure of external forces and concerns the collective, stress is more about the individual being experienced by a specific situation. According to strain theory, delinquency behaviors are the result of a discrepancy, objective but individualized, between the goals and means available to reach them. This discrepancy originates from strain. People cannot live with a stressor or strain, they need to find alternatives, adapt to the tension and find a way do away with the strain. People who are less socially and culturally vulnerable, especially teenagers and socially disadvantaged young people, may have a reduced repertoire of adaptive behaviors. Delinquency drug addiction and deviance in general are adaptations. The origin of the strain is social because the goals and means to achieve are socially …show more content…
None of it can by itself find out the origin and causes of juvenile delinquency; although it is true that some of it offers data worthy of consideration concerning the predisposition of certain children and young people towards crime but it is not less true that it, in isolation, can determine with a minimum margin of error the reason for the entry into delinquency of some young people and the correct behavior of others. Therefore, it seems to me more appropriate -without of course, to underestimate any serious attempt to establish a theoretical and empirical study on the causes of juvenile delinquency-the so-called multiple factors principle, which holds that juvenile and juvenile delinquency is due to the confluence of several factors (personal, social, and economic), without these being individualized and isolated from each other. The causes or motivations of juvenile delinquency are multiple and, the importance of one or the other is a variable factor in each case, hardly traceable to a common denominator. This advantage is observed mainly in the implementation of prevention programs, which must take into account the multifactorial fact of crime and, therefore, must be supported by integral models that consider all the causal factors, in order to try to find the most appropriate
Verenisse Garcia – A00013982
Texas A & M International University
Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory
Defined and Broken Down for a Simple and Better Understanding
Discussion
In the 1990’s, Robert Agnew’s came up with the General Strain Theory, also known as, GST. To better understand where the theories derive, we need to understand that criminology is defined as empirical and interdisciplinary science, which deals with the study of crime, the offender’s person, the victim and the social control of guilty behavior, and that it tries to provide valid and contrasted information about the genesis, dynamics and main variables of the …show more content…
In the psycho-social field for strain, we mean a change, in a subject or in a situation, due to the pressure of one or more external forces. It's a very similar concept to stress. But while the former is due to the pressure of external forces and concerns the collective, stress is more about the individual being experienced by a specific situation. According to strain theory, delinquency behaviors are the result of a discrepancy, objective but individualized, between the goals and means available to reach them. This discrepancy originates from strain. People cannot live with a stressor or strain, they need to find alternatives, adapt to the tension and find a way do away with the strain. People who are less socially and culturally vulnerable, especially teenagers and socially disadvantaged young people, may have a reduced repertoire of adaptive behaviors. Delinquency drug addiction and deviance in general are adaptations. The origin of the strain is social because the goals and means to achieve are socially …show more content…
None of it can by itself find out the origin and causes of juvenile delinquency; although it is true that some of it offers data worthy of consideration concerning the predisposition of certain children and young people towards crime but it is not less true that it, in isolation, can determine with a minimum margin of error the reason for the entry into delinquency of some young people and the correct behavior of others. Therefore, it seems to me more appropriate -without of course, to underestimate any serious attempt to establish a theoretical and empirical study on the causes of juvenile delinquency-the so-called multiple factors principle, which holds that juvenile and juvenile delinquency is due to the confluence of several factors (personal, social, and economic), without these being individualized and isolated from each other. The causes or motivations of juvenile delinquency are multiple and, the importance of one or the other is a variable factor in each case, hardly traceable to a common denominator. This advantage is observed mainly in the implementation of prevention programs, which must take into account the multifactorial fact of crime and, therefore, must be supported by integral models that consider all the causal factors, in order to try to find the most appropriate