Social Strain Theory

 Strain theorists believe that most people share similar values and goals. They want to earn money, have a nice home, drive a great car, and wear stylish clothes. They also want to care for their families and educate their children. Unfortunately, the ability to achieve these personal goals is stratifi ed by socioeconomic class. While the affluent may live out the American Dream, the poor are shut out from achieving their goals. Because they can’t always get what they want, they begin to feel frustrated and angry; a condition which is referred to as strain.

Strain is related to criminal motivation. According to the strain view, sharp divisions between the rich and poor create an atmosphere of envy and mistrust that may lead to violence and aggression.130 People who feel deprived because of their race or economic class standing eventually develop a sense of injustice and discontent.

Strain theories come in two distinct formulations:
Structural strain:
Structural strain suggests that economic and social sources of strain shape collective human behavior.
Individual strain:
Individual strain theories suggest that individual life experiences cause some people to suffer pain and misery, feelings which are then translated into antisocial behaviors.

Anomie
Anomie generally means   “ without norms”
According to Durkheim, an anomic society is one in which rules of behavior have broken down or become inoperative during periods of rapid social change or social crisis such as war or famine. Anomie undermines society’s social control function. Every society works to limit people’s goals and desires. If a society becomes anomic, it can no longer establish and maintain control over its population’s wants and desires. Because people fi nd it difficult to control their appetites, their demands become unlimited. Under these circumstances, obedience to legal codes may be strained, and alternative behavior choices, such as crimes, may be inevitable.

Merton’s Theory of Anomie
Merton used a modifi ed version of the concept of anomie to fi t social, economic, and cultural conditions found in modern U.S. society. He found that two elements of culture interact to produce potentially anomic conditions: culturally defined goals and socially approved means for obtaining them. Contemporary society stresses the goals of acquiring wealth, success, and power. Socially permissible means include hard work, education, and thrift.
When socially mandated goals are uniform throughout society and access to legitimate means is bound by class and status, the resulting strain produces anomie among those who are locked out of the legitimate opportunity structure. Consequently, they may develop criminal or delinquent solutions to the problem of attaining goals.

Social Adaptations
Merton argued that each person has his or her own concept of the goals of society and the means at his or her disposal to attain them.
Merton introduces different typologies of individual modes of adaptations.Here is a brief description of each of these modes of adaptation.
Conformity
Conformity occurs when individuals both embrace conventional social goals and also have the means at their disposal to attain them. The conformist desires wealth and success and can obtain them through education and a high paying job. In a balanced, stable society, this is the most common social adaptation. If a majority of its people did not practice conformity, the society would cease to exist.

Innovation
Innovation occurs when an individual accepts the goals of society but rejects or is incapable of attaining them through legitimate means. Many people desire material goods and luxuries but lack the fi nancial ability to attain them. The resulting confl ict forces them to adopt innovative solutions to their dilemma: they steal, sell drugs, or extort money. Of the fi ve adaptations, innovation is most closely associated with criminal behavior.

Ritualism

Ritualists are less concerned about accumulating wealth and instead gain pleasure from practicing traditional ceremonies regardless of whether they have a real purpose or goal. The strict set of manners and customs in religious orders, feudal societies, clubs, and college fraternities encourage and appeal to ritualists. Ritualists should have the lowest level of criminal behavior because they have abandoned the success goal, which is at the root of criminal activity.

Retreatism

Retreatists reject both the goals and the means of society. Merton suggests that people who adjust in this fashion are “in the society but not of it.” Included in this category are “psychotics, psychoneurotics, chronic autists, pariahs, outcasts, vagrants, vagabonds, tramps, chronic drunkards, and drug addicts.” Because such people are morally or otherwise incapable of using both legitimate and illegitimate means, they attempt to escape their lack of success by withdrawing—either mentally or physically.

Rebellion
Rebellion involves substituting an alternative set of goals and means for conventional ones. Revolutionaries who wish to promote radical change in the existing social structure and who call for alternative lifestyles, goals, and beliefs are engaging in rebellion. Rebellion may be a reaction against a corrupt and hated government or an effort to create alternate opportunities and lifestyles within the existing system.

Macro-Level Theory:
Institutional Anomie Theory

An important addition to the strain literature is the book Crime and the American Dream, by Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld.Their macro-level version of anomie theory views antisocial behavior as a function of cultural and institutional influences in U.S. society, a model they refer to as institutional anomie theory
Messner and Rosenfeld agree with Merton’s view that the success goal is pervasive in American culture. They refer to this as the American Dream, a term they employ as both a goal and a process. As a goal, the American Dream involves accumulating material goods and wealth via open individual competition. As a process, it involves both being socialized to pursue material success and believing that prosperity is an achievable goal in American culture.
What is distinct about American society, according to Messner and Rosenfeld, and what most likely determines the exceedingly high national crime rate, is that anomic conditions have been allowed to “develop to such an extraordinary degree.”

Institutional Effects
At the institutional level, the dominance of economic concerns weakens the informal social control exerted by the family, church, and school. These institutions have lost their ability to regulate behavior and have instead become a conduit for promoting material success. Parents push their kids to succeed at any cost; schools encourage kids to get into the best colleges by any means possible; religious institutions promote their wealth and power.Crime rates may rise even in a healthy economy because national prosperity heightens the attractiveness of monetary rewards, encouraging people to gain fi nancial success by any means possible, including illegal ones. Meanwhile, the importance of social institutions as a means of exerting social control is reduced. In this “culture of competition,” self-interest prevails and generates amorality, acceptance of inequality, and disdain for the less fortunate.


Micro-Level Theory:

General Strain Theory
Micro level theory of strain shows multiple sources of stress according to Robert Angew.

Failure to achieve positively valued goals.
Disjunction of expectations and achievements
Removel of positively valued stimuli
Presentation of negative stimuli

According to Agnew, the greater the intensity and frequency of strain experiences, the greater their impact and the more likely they are to cause criminality. Each type of strain will increase the likelihood of experiencing such negative emotions as disappointment, depression, fear, and, most important, anger.

Sources of Strain
Social Sources of Strain
Community Sources of Strain