Strain Theory Essay

The environments people are born into shape their perspective on life. Normally people wouldn’t commit crimes but their surroundings cause strain in their life and force them to partake in illegal behavior. However, some of the actions taken are less serious than others like: a teen speeding on the street to make curfew or stealing from a store to pay your rent. The actions of speeding can have a dramatic effect such as getting pulled over for drunk driving and having your parents find out and making them miss bills due to bailing you out. These illegal actions taken were due to the strain put upon the individual. Their response to that strain was illegal but they performed them in order to fulfill their goal. In addition, one can argue that
Durkheim was a French philosopher and sociologist whose theory of functionalism focuses on social order and societies tolerance to certain behaviors over time that might make them illegal or acceptable for the time being (Miller et al, 2015). An example is the societies attitudes toward smoking in public now compared to 50 years ago, since we now understand about the harmful effects it can have to you and the people around you. In addition, Durkheim viewed anomie as the, “cause of property crime, violent crime, and “juvenile crime” (DiCristina,
The purpose is to understand what pays into actions of delinquency so we can slow the act of offending (Burns, 2013). Since juvenile delinquency can ultimately lead to young adult violence. One theory on the explanation to the increase in juvenile delinquency involves the limited amount of time a parent can spend with their children due, “primarily to longer work hours and less time off, are having a significant impact on the ability of parents to provided support to their offspring” (Wright, 1996). In addition, the pressure of, “parental conflicts and family disruption” can lead to juvenile disobedience (Wright,