The Susan Smith Story: Unthinkable Crime

Susan Smith was sentenced to life in prison for committing the “Unthinkable Crime” of murdering her two children, Michael Daniel and Alexander Tyler. She lied to the police and later confessed to pushing her car into the John D. Lake on October 25, 1994 and drowned her two children. Smith often suffered from depressed and after a confession, Smith had told cops she was suicidal after a break up with a boyfriend. In the trial, it came out that her stepfather Beverly Russell sexually assaulted Susan Smith. Smith has the main attributes of the General Strain Theory: Depression, suicide attempts and being sexually abused.

The General Strain Theory goes into more depth, compared to other feminist theories, about three psychological strain sources. This feminist theory argues that various types of negative relations and interactions with others (strains) lead to negative emotions

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