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Agnew Strain Theory

Dr. Jerry D. Lamb

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)

  • 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

Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory

Robert Agnew

  • Believes that Anger has a significant impact on all measures of crime and deviance

ANGER

Criminal

Behavior

Strain

  • Expands on traditional strain theory

  • Include all types of negative relations b/w an individual and others

  • GST maintains that strain is likely to have a cumulative effect on delinquency after reaching a certain threshold

Robert Agnew’s GST

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?

Three Major Types of Strain

Failure to achieve positively valued goals (gap between expectations and actual achievements, not always long-term)

Loss or fear of loss positive stimuli (experiencing the stressful impact felt before and after moving, death of a relative/close friend)

Presence or introduction of negative stimuli (peer pressure, physical /emotional abuse)

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

Sources of Strain

  • Social sources of strain (negative interactions with other people)

  • Community sources of strain (some communities increase the likelihood that people get angry and frustrated and can be more prone to crime

  • community level factors: economic deprivation, family disruption, fear of crime, child abuse, over crowding, bad housing)

Coping Strategies Other Than Crime

  • Crime is not the only way that people will respond to strain

  • There are three different types of coping strategies that enable the individual to deal with the strain in their life through legitimate means

Cognitive

Emotional

Behavioral

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

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)

Emotional coping strategies

  • Relaxation methods
  • Sport
  • Meditation

Determinants of Delinquent Behavior

  • If the initial goals and values of a person are high and they have few alternative goals to fall back on, then the person may be more prone to committing delinquent acts (beauty queen)

  • Bad temper, previous delinquent behavior, delinquent friends

Agnew’s Theory

Factors affecting

disposition to delinquency

Criminal Behavior

ANGER

Constraints to delinquent

behavior

Strain

Male Versus Female Strain and Crime

  • Males and females have been found to experience different types of strain and different emotions

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

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).

Policy Recommendations

  • Family-based programs are designed to teach the members how to solve problems in a constructive manner, and parents are taught how to effectively discipline their children (Agnew, 1995)

  • This will reduce the amount of negative emotions that result from conflict in the family and will decrease the amount of strain in the home

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

Reference

Cullen, T. F. & Agnew, R. (2010), Criminological theory: Past to present, 4th Edition: Oxford

University Publishing.

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