Social Structure Theory

Discuss the major social structure theories that apply to digital crime and explain how cyber stalking and harassment could be the result of strains.

Social structure theories suggest people's places in the socioeconomic structure influence their chances of becoming a criminal. Poor people are more likely to commit crimes because they are unable to achieve monetary or social success in any other way. Social structure theory has three schools of thought--social disorganization, strain, and cultural deviance theories. Social disorganization theory suggests that slum dwellers violate the law because they live in areas where social control has broken down.

According to Taylor, originally, social structure theories focused on why lower-class individuals are more likely to commit crime than middle and upper class individuals. However this theory

The lack of or difficultly of obtaining opportunities has been classified as the Strain Theory. Merton developed the following five modes of adaptation: conformity, ritualism, innovation, retreatism and rebellion. He suggests that those who experience the innovation and rebellion strain are more likely to commit crimes although the goals of each differ.

Robert Agnew’s more modern approach to strain theory is a general strain theory does not focus on economic success as the prominent goal in U.S. society, but explains why individuals who feel stress, strain or negative affective states in their lives are more likely to commit crimes (Taylor, 2015). According to Agnew, these negative affective states are caused by four different sources of strain:

1. Failure to achieve positively valued goals

2. The disjunction between expectations and