Social Strain Theory Essay

The Classical School thoughts on criminality was the dominant viewpoint for a long time. They focus on solutions to protect society from criminal activities by emphasizing human rights and deterrent methods for criminal behavior. The Classical School’s thoughts on criminality is based on the premise that crime is committed through free will and rational thought. If an offender believed that the risks of committing a crime out weight the fear of punishment, then the offender will commit the crime to fulfill their interests. In other words, these individuals outweigh the possible costs and pleasures of committing a given act and then behaves in a rational way based on the conclusions of that analysis (Schram, 2017). The way society is run is …show more content…
The Chicago School of criminology examine how the development of cities create concentric zones which explain crime rates in certain areas that dictates deviant behavior in the late 1930s. In the 1930s and 40s, some criminalists developed social structure theories which explains how negative social processes such as a poor education, wrecked family life and deviant peers are linked to criminal behavior within an individual. The Strain theory that blames the idea of the American Dream in heavily instilled in all people. It is believed that through hard work and a good education, anyone can be successful and wealth. With the pressure from families and society for all citizens to pursue, for those who fails will convert to a crime of life to create their own version of success. In the 1950s, the Conflict Theory was established to which suggested that crime is caused by the social classes struggling for power and control amongst each other and that laws were created by those in power to protect their own rights and interests. In modern times, the drug culture, gangs and delinquency are the recent topics that are being explored to explain criminal