Strain Theory

The story of Manny comes from central California in the city of San Jose. Manny is a gang member for a vicious gang call Norteno. He grew up in one of San Jose’s roughest neighborhoods he is from a Hispanic family. From the story you can see that he grew up without his dad which mean his mom was the only one there. But his mother was working two jobs she was not around enough to really raise him so the streets raised him in a sense. Already being in fourth grade Manny staring running the streets with his friends and getting into fights with other kids. Manny must have been around really horrible people because his crimes are really bad. At only 18 years old he already has 2 strikes according to California law. His first one was due to an alleged

It has all the right signs that would lead to this theory. Strain theory describes delinquency as being caused by frustration by not being able to have an equal opportunity or being normal which is considered by society to be like everybody else in the world. One example of this would be growing up in a house hold with only your mother and not your father when many other families have both. This would cause a strain on the child’s development in the sense that the things that Manny is suppose to learn from his dad he can’t because he isn’t there so he looked to other sources of a father figure which lead Manny to the life of gangs and committing crimes in the city. Also in the story it states that the mother was rarely ever home due too working two jobs to support her son. But her not being home to supervise leaves Manny to pursue other things in life that he would not normally get involved with. One can say that Manny joined a gang because it is what he wanted to do since he seen the life style and likes it. But I would argue to say that seeing your mother going through so much stress and pain and only being at the age of 14 to 16 there’s not a lot of options to make money. So Manny probably joined the Nortenos because he felt the obligation that he needs to provide for his mom since Manny is considered that man of the

One of which is the strain to achieve goals or being able to be productive. The second one is the removal of a valued person or moving away from something that had meaning to you. The last one is the presence of negative things such as being abused or being criminally victimized. All of these pretty much describe Manny story to the exact point. Manny lived in a horrible place which would cause stress. He also was the man of the house at a young age since his father left him which would cause a lot of stress being so young. And last but not least having a mother but her not being around because she has to work 2 jobs to provide for Manny. This would lead to stress because he never got that comfort or that love from his mother that he should have