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
with negative stimuli (Akers & Sellers, 2009).

While reading the general strain theory, I found this to be very interesting because the theory shows that individuals that is face with bad situations or stressful events in life that can lead to criminal/delinquent behavior.
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
for.

Also, this theory made me think about this guy that I met through my sister, that became one of our good friends. In his sophomore year of college his girlfriend passed away in a terrible car accident. This impacted him greatly that he dropped out of college because she was his support system and she was the one that pushed him to go to college. This was the removal of a positive stimuli. After dropping out of college he was arrested for a minor crime, but then he later got this life together. He found God and now has a positive stimuli.

Confrontation with negative stimuli which is one that is exposed to the negative actions of others that can lead to criminal/delinquent behavior. "Deviance is most likely to occur when the response to strain is anger. Anger results when one blames the system or others, rather than oneself, for the adverse experiences" (Akers & Sellers, 2009, p. 199).