General Strain Theory

The general strain theory reports that women tend to respond to strain emotionally with depression and anger, that anger is then internalized into guilt and shame and this can result in self-destructive behaviors. On the contrary, men respond emotionally to strain with anger, followed by moral outrage and this can result in a violent crime. In these findings, the result of females generally having stronger relationship ties which help to reduce strain as opposed to males who have lower social control and respond to strain with the crime.

In the tenth question (below), the participants literally split down the middle with fifty percent agreeing that race does play a role in the crime and the other fifty percent disagreeing that race does not have a role in the crime. These findings are not conducive to Agnew’s theory. Agnew’ theory focused on emotional as well as gender, but not necessarily race.
Nevertheless, Agnew and his colleagues have extended his theory in many ways, showing how the theory can also be used to explain patterns of crime over the life course, gender differences in crime, and community-level differences in crime. According to the general strain theory, the trait of aggressiveness aids in antisocial behavior which can be explained in three different ways. First, aggressive individuals have a tendency to blame others for their frustration. Second aggressive individuals often provoke negative reactions from others. Third aggressive individuals tend to put themselves into environments with high levels of strain. As a result, aggressive individuals have difficulty maintaining stable relationships and employment. They may end up with jobs that prove to be sources of prolonged strain which excite persistent high-rate