Criminal Adaptation To Strain - Essay Example

? CRIMINAL ADAPTATION TO STRAIN By Insert Presented to Location Due Introduction The society that we live in today lays significant emphasis on how to succeed in life. Every person is taught on the various ways that can allow him or her to emerge successful in life. For instance, most Americans have a deep desire for wealth and possessions such as cars, housing, clothing, jewelry and other kinds of materials that provide them with comfort. They also need power, prestige, good education and status (Agnew & Brezina, 2002). Today’s society lays great emphasis on realizing these goals regardless of the economic status of different groups. However, because of the influence of the structural state in the society, people in diverse groups such as those belonging to the lower income status, as well as those who are discriminated by the society that they live in find it challenging to realize those goals that are associated with success based on the means that are provided to them. The frustrations and pressures that people in this group encounter are usually very severe such that they make them to experience serous strain, and hence force them to engage in serious crime (Mazerolle & Piquerro, 2004). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the various forces that lead to an increase in likelihood of a criminal adaptation to strain. Discussion Strain Theory The strain theory lays emphasis on the way in which that the society is structured, and the limited mechanisms that people have available to them to allow them to realize the goals that they desire. This theory perceives crime as a product of the frustrations and anger that people feel when they fail to achieve the goals that are before them. In this perspective therefore, it is evident that the forces that are generated socially are the ones that force people to engage into deviant behavior (Stiles, et al., 2000). These strains are not distributed evenly in the society, and they are prevalent in those groups that are associated with high crime rates (Richard & Messner, 2002). When based on the breakdowns that are attributed to social order, especially with respect to the unequal access to success, normlessness (anomie) serves as one of the sources of these breakdowns. The concept of anomie was adopted in order to help explain the increased rise of suicidal activities that are produced by the social changes that are noted in the society (Merton, 1996). For instance, anomie suicide is used to refer to the acts that are associated with self-destruction that emerges when the society’s norms are noted to breakdown in an abrupt manner. These occur especially during incidences of political crisis or economic depression (Messner & Roenfeld, 2007). General Strain Theory Concept Robert Agnew developed a version of the strain theory, which he referred to as general strain theory (GST). General strain theory lays emphasis on the forces that influence the strain level that an individual portrays. This theory tries to explain the reason as to why the strained people tend to engage in criminal activities more while compared to those who are not strained (Agnew & Brezina, 2002). By basing his arguments on psychological, sociological and research in mental health, Agnew managed to expand various adaptations that a person may respond to, especially when reacting to the strains that are prevalent in the social environment (Nikkos, 2008). Based on Agnew’s beliefs, it is evident that there are a large number of forces that influence the choice that one makes with respect to adapting to criminal and non-criminal acts. He also lays emphasis on the concept of interpersonal relationships (Messsner b & Rosenfield, 2001). For instance, GST provides descriptions that are related to the relationships that do not treat people the way in which that they wish to be treated (Piquelo & Sealock, 2007). There are a number of negative relationships that make people to engage in strain. There are as follows: There are those people who prevent others from realizing the goals that they value; there are those people who threaten to remove or remove positive achievements that others have made; and there are those people who threaten to expose or expose others to negative stimuli (Simons & Yi-Fu, 2003). These three strains have the potential to increase the probability that a person may experience, especially when subjected to various negative emotions that are related to fear, anger and frustration (Agnew & Brezina, 2002). These emotions that a person experiences are then known to create pressures or other kinds of tensions that demand for corrective action (Pratt & Godsey, 2005). There are those individuals who do not have sufficient power to allow them to deal or control the negative stimuli that they experience while compared to those people who are in positions of power. This kind of a strain has the ability to increase the probability that would force other people to experience a number of negative emotions. These emotions would then create various kinds of pressures that demand for corrective action, especially delinquent behavior. For instance, anger may be treated as being conducive to delinquency (Richard & Messner, 2002). This is because anger has the potential to energize an individual to engage in a particular activity, bring down inhibitions, and create a desire that can provide room for leverage. Delinquency is often used to help reduce or allow one to avoid engaging in strain, seek for revenge from those that have been inflicted with strain, or reduce the various forms of negative feelings that one gets as a result of engaging in strain (Pratt & Godsey, 2005). There are only a limited number of individuals that turn to crime and delinquency as a result of being subjected to strain. This is an illustration that there must be a number of conditioning factors that influence the way in which a person reacts to strain (Savolainen, 2000). The conditioning factors that Agnew stipulates are as follows: the importance that a person lays to the values, identities, and goals which he feels to be threatened; the coping skills of a person; the resources that an individual has, such as self-esteem, money, amount of social control, social support, and the relationship that one has especially with delinquent and non-delinquent peers; the access that an individual has to alternative goals, values, and identities, and the resources that a person has, especially those that are elated to problem solving and intelligence (Agnew & Brezina, 2002). There are a number of conditioning factors, both of which are attributed to internal and external constraints that greatly impact on the way in which an individual responds to incidences of strain (Shaw & McKay, 1999). Both delinquent and criminal outcomes are a must in the case of strain. Strain brings in pressure that is normally directed towards deviance and crime. There are a number of ways in which people can succumb to such pressure. For instance, there are those people who learn how to cope with pressure that is derived from it; others can chose to ignore it; others can start abusing substances; while others may decide to take revenge on those that they feel have led to their strain or anger (Sampson & Laub, 1999). Conclusion Though there is a lot of research that supports GST, there are those studies that have encountered difficulties while explaining why there are those people who tend to be more likely to cope with those people who engage in delinquent behavior, and have higher chances of committing crime. For instance, issues related to delinquency, and personality traits reveal that juveniles who are highly subjected to emotionality as well as those who are low in constraint would tend to react to strain more while portraying criminal and delinquency behavior (Runciman, 2005). Therefore, it is evident that Agnew has portrayed the various ways in which social problems tend to foster information related to criminology theory and evidence. As a result, it is true that the general strain theory plays a vital role in helping to illustrate the forces that increase the likelihood of a criminal adapting to strain. Reference List Agnew, R & Brezina, J P 2002, Strain, personality traits, and delinquency: Extending general strain theory, Criminology, vol. 40 no. 3, pp. 43-72. Mazerolle, P & Piquerro, A 2004, Violent responses to strain: An examination of conditioning influences, Violence and Victims, vol. 12 no. 4), pp. 323-343, Free Press, Merton, R K 1996, Social Theory and Social Structure. New York. Messner, S & Roenfeld, R 2007, Political restraint of the market and levels of criminal homicide: A cross-national application of institutional-anomie theory, Social Forces, vol. 75 no. 1, pp. 1393-1416. Messsner b, S F & Rosenfield, R 2001, Crime and the American dream, Wadsworh, Belmot. Nikkos, P 2008, Global anomie, dynomie, and economic crime: Hidden consequences of neoliberalism and globalization in Russia and around the world, Social Justice, vol. 27 no. 4, pp. 16-44. Piquelo, N & Sealock, M 2007, Generalizing general strain theory: An examination of an offending population, Justice Quarterly, vol. 17 no. 3, pp. 449-484. Pratt, T C & Godsey, T W 2005, Social support, inequality, and homicide: A cross-national test of an integrated theoretical model, Criminology, vol. 41 no. 2, pp. 611-643. Richard, R & Messner, S F 2002, Crime and the American dream: An institutional analysis, Transaction, New Brunswic. Runciman, W G 2005, Relative Deprivation and Social Justice: A Study of Attitudes to Social Inequality in Twentieth-Century EnglandUniversity of California Press, University of California Press, Berkeley. Sampson, R & Laub, J 1999, Crime in the Making, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Savolainen, J 2000, Inequality, welfare state, and homicide: Further support for the institutional anomie theory, Crminology, vol. 38 no. 1, pp. 1021-1038. Shaw, C R & McKay, H D 1999, Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Area: A Study of Rates of Delinquents in Relation to Differential Characteristics of Local Communities in American Cities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Simons, B L & Yi-Fu, E A 2003, Incidents of discrimination and risk for delinquency: A longitudinal test for strain theory with an African American sample, Justice Quarterly, vol. 20 no. 1, pp. 827-854. Stiles, B L, Liu, X & Kaplan, H B 2000, Relative deprivation and deviant adaptations: The mediating effects of negative self-feelings, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, vol. 37 no. 1, pp. 64-90. Read More