Strain
Definition
In criminological theory, the pressure or frustration produced when individuals cannot achieve goals through legitimate means, or when they experience loss or exposure to negative conditions. Strain is the mechanism that, in Merton's and Agnew's accounts, generates criminal motivation.
Related terms
- Anomie
- A condition in which social norms weaken or become contradictory, leaving individuals without clear moral guidance. First used by Durkheim to describe...
- General strain theory (GST)
- Robert Agnew's 1992 reformulation of strain theory. GST identifies three sources of strain: failure to achieve positively valued goals, removal of positively...
- Innovation (Merton)
- One of Merton's five adaptations: accepting the culturally approved goal (financial success) while rejecting legitimate means and substituting illegitimate ones. Merton identified...
- Institutional anomie theory (IAT)
- Messner and Rosenfeld's macro-level extension of Merton (1994). IAT argues that societies in which the economy dominates all other institutions produce high...
- Retreatism
- One of Merton's five adaptations: rejecting both the culturally approved goal and the legitimate means, withdrawing from the competitive social order altogether....
Explained in
- Anomie and Strain TheoriesIn criminological theory, the pressure or frustration produced when individuals cannot achieve goals through legitimate means, or when they experience loss or...