Robert Agnew's General Strain Theory

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Matt Maready
CRM 255
Dr. Maume
29 April 2015

General Strain Theory
There are many different criminological theories that try to explain why certain crime is committed. As far as the matters of crime and delinquency are concerned, one of the most influential theories comes to mind: Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory. According to the text, general strain theory (or GST as it is most commonly abbreviated) “starts with the assumption that negative relationships with others causes strain or stress in people’s lives” (Kauzlarich, Barlow 251). In our class lecture, we learned that general strain theory considers 3 sources of strain: (1), which is also in the definition, negative relationships with others, (2) when other individuals remove or threaten …show more content…

In their study, they used a sample of delinquent youth, both white and non-white, to examine the negative strains in which the youth experienced which might have led to crime. The results they found were astonishing. Unlike Agnew’s claim that African Americans would experience more strain conductive to crime and would have less coping resources because of their disadvantages, it was actually the exact opposite. The whites were the ones to experience more strains towards anger and aggression. But, coincidentally, non-white youths had more prior arrests than white youths (Piquero and Sealock, 2010). The next thing they found was that they whites and non-whites both showed signs of the effects of strain and anger being positive and significant, meaning that the youths who experienced greater strain also experienced high levels of anger (Piquero and Sealock, 2010). But, they found that strain led to depression for more non-whites than whites (Piquero and Sealock, 2010). They stated that GST appears to help explain the understanding of the events that lead to criminal involvement, no matter which group is being examined (non-whites and whites), but also the need to take into consideration of the apparent differences between the groups (Piquero and Sealock et al., 2010:

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