General Strain Theory Essay

The general assumptions of strain/anomie perspective basically discuss that social structures within our culture could coerce people into group and situations that would push them to commit crime. The reason why I chose this over subcultural perspective is because the strain/anomie perspective has more application to explaining the causes of crime though expounding upon certain goals and motivations than to claim that certain groups and subcultures of people just have a great affinity for crime that others. I argue that out of all of the strain/anomie perspectives, Agnew’s general strain theory provide the best explanation for the overrepresentation of homicides in inner-city areas. While the other theories claim that they can identify the causes that give people the motivation to commit
The other perspectives tend to focus on a smaller demographic or that it relies on specific scenarios to push people towards criminal behavior. Merton’s theory fails to address the class dilemmas as people from lower class households may not be able to achieve their cultural goals though institutionalized means. Cohen’s theory is not strong enough on its own to explain the numerous homicides in inner-city areas as he claims about lower class delinquency is only relevant to young males who join gangs. Cloward and Ohlin’s theory is pertains only to cases of people becoming criminals in response to numerous of illegitimate opportunities. Messner and Rosenfeld’s theory is only relevant to crime in regards to people following the American dream and other similar goals. Agnew’s theory can cover different races, genders, and ethnic groups which it also explains why crimes like homicide is concentrated in specific areas as the source of the problem is due to people being unable to adapt to those