Robert Agnew's General Strain Theory

Strain theory is "a micro-level, process explanation of individuals criminal behavior based on notion of goal frustration" (Howell, 2015). The general strain theory of crime and delinquency was developed by Robert Agnew's in 1985 (Akers & Sellers, 2009). The theory has three explanatory factors which is first the strain that lead to negative emotion then to behavior, but what can impact a person response to a strain is the internal and external constraints. An internal constraint is the type of value structure, self control, or even the amount of emotion management (Howell, 2015). Where the external constraint is the amount of social support or bonding and there is the nature of peer association. Strain can come from three situations which are failure to achieve positively valued, removal of positively valued stimuli, and confrontation
The gap between what a individual expect and what they actually achieve can lead to anger or resentment. Or even what a person think is a fair outcome to a situation, but then turns out to not be (Akers & Sellers, 2009). I saw this with a friend I went to school with. She was having trouble in a class, so she would do things such as asked the teacher for help and follow classmate. She thought that if the teacher show her trying then she will pass her. When she did not get the outcome she was looking for her attitude about school changed. She would sometime not do her school work and she even skipped class because she didn't won't to take a test because she felt that it was no point in trying she will fail. There are many people that get stress out about school which could lead them to do things such as drugs or even cheat in order to achieve their goal and get the outcome they may be looking