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.
- Field
- Criminological theory
- Key theorists
- Robert Merton, Robert Agnew
- Trigger
- Blocked goals or negative experience
- Function
- Mechanism producing criminal motivation
Common questions
How does strain differ from strain theory itself?+
Strain is the underlying psychological pressure an individual feels; strain theory is the broader explanatory model, built by Merton and later Agnew, that uses that pressure to account for why crime occurs in a population.
What sources of strain did Agnew add beyond Merton's account?+
Agnew's general strain theory expanded strain beyond blocked goals to include the loss of valued things and exposure to negative treatment, widening the theory to explain offending that has nothing to do with pursuing wealth or status.
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....