Strain Theories

Strain theories look done a structural scope to examine crime in society. When people fail to meet social goals, they whole tone a filter in their lives. An cast up in strain can lead to an increase in crime.Strain can be felt throughout any community, large or small. Im from a town of 3,000 people in rural Iowa. Even though it is much smaller than a city such as Denver, problems with crime and delinquency still exist. A summer drought reduces the loot during harvest and leads to much strain throughout the community since agriculture is the main industry. This puts the whole town into a sort of slum, which leads to increased crime and delinquency. For example, low-waged employees steal from employers or neighbors due to their frustration everywhere lack of income. Teenagers oft commit more vandalism and petty thefts since their parents are spending more time at the bump to distract themselves from the harsh times and less time at home with family.According to Mertons strain theory, anomie is the inability to satisfy natural appetites such as wealth and social status. When people from my community feel anomie, they tend to fall into the retreatism menage of the five adaptions. They consider the work they do in the fields or time with their family a lost cause and turn to alcohol for their problems. There are plenty of regulars at the local bar because that is a place where they can escape their problems and gossip about others. This illegitimate cope mechanism might make them feel good for a short time, but it does them no advance over the long run.Another vantage point of crime is through general strain theory, which focuses on electro oppose relationships. Like I mentioned before, a drought is highly detrimental to agriculture and leads to a blockage of a positively valued goal. This might also fall under the anticipated strain category because farmers spend every day of the summer worrying about rain, and a lack of it builds up the strain they fee l. This creates an overall low social control over teenagers and it becomes especially bad when parents take out their frustrations over money on their children, as this leads to ahigh negative emotionality and low constrain- a.k.a. the perfect pattern for delinquency.The empirical article did a great job of summarizing strain theory. It reasoned that people feel negative emotions when they experience strain, and those negative emotions are likely to lead to illegitimate coping mechanisms. Once an individual begins victimization illegitimate coping mechanisms, it can be very difficult to change directions and use legitimate strategies. It in truth becomes a test of character when people experience strain, and the unfortunate fact-of-the-matter is that there will always be those who chose the wrong path in life.