strain theory

strain theory, in sociology, proposal that pressure derived from social factors, such as lack of income or lack of quality education, drives individuals to commit crime. The ideas underlying strain theory were first advanced in the 1930s by American sociologist Robert K. Merton, whose work on the subject became especially influential in the 1950s. Other researchers set forth similar ideas, including American criminologist Albert Cohen and American sociologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin.

Classic strain theories focused primarily on disadvantaged groups, wherein common aspirations (e.g., realizing the “American dream”) and the inability to achieve those goals was considered a driving factor behind crime. Individuals whose incomes placed them below the poverty threshold, for example, were unable to realize common, socially accepted ambitions through legal means, and thus they were forced down a path of criminal behaviour to achieve their goals. Those theories later were reformulated, most prominently by American criminologists Robert Agnew and Steven F. Messner and Richard Rosenfeld.

The result of Agnew’s work was general strain theory, which addressed weaknesses in earlier strain theories, including inadequate explanations for middle-class delinquency and inconsistencies between aspirations and expectations for fulfilling them. Key components of general strain theory included its consideration for the role of emotion in strain-derived crime and its consideration of a broad range of possible sources of societal pressure that might cause a person to commit crime.