Criminal adaptation, strain, wealth and possessions
The society that we live in today lays significant emphasis on how to succeed in life. Every person is taught on the various ways that can allow him or her to emerge successful in life. For instance, most Americans have a deep desire for wealth and possessions such as cars, housing, clothing, jewelry and other kinds of materials that provide them with comfort. They also need power, prestige, good education and status (Agnew & Brezina, 2002). Today's society lays great emphasis on realizing these goals regardless of the economic status of different groups.
However, because of the influence of the structural state in the society, people in diverse groups such as those belonging to the lower income status, as well as those who are discriminated by the society that they live in find it challenging to realize those goals that are associated with success based on the means that are provided to them. The frustrations and pressures that people in this group encounter are usually very severe such that they make them to experience serous strain, and hence force them to engage in serious crime (Mazerolle & Piquerro, 2004). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the various forces that lead to an increase in likelihood of a criminal adaptation to strain.
[...] Criminal adaptation to strain Introduction The society that we live in today lays significant emphasis on how to succeed in life. Every person is taught on the various ways that can allow him or her to emerge successful in life. For instance, most Americans have a deep desire for wealth and possessions such as cars, housing, clothing, jewelry and other kinds of materials that provide them with comfort. They also need power, prestige, good education and status (Agnew & Brezina, 2002). [...]
[...] This kind of a strain has the ability to increase the probability that would force other people to experience a number of negative emotions. These emotions would then create various kinds of pressures that demand for corrective action, especially delinquent behavior. For instance, anger may be treated as being conducive to delinquency (Richard & Messner, 2002). This is because anger has the potential to energize an individual to engage in a particular activity, bring down inhibitions, and create a desire that can provide room for leverage. [...]
[...] Pratt, T C & Godsey, T W 2005, Social support, inequality, and homicide: A cross-national test of an integrated theoretical model, Criminology, vol no pp. 611-643. Richard, R & Messner, S F 2002, Crime and the American dream: An institutional analysis, Transaction, New Brunswic. Runciman, W G 2005, Relative Deprivation and Social Justice: A Study of Attitudes to Social Inequality in Twentieth-Century EnglandUniversity of California Press, University of California Press, Berkeley. Sampson, R & Laub, J 1999, Crime in the Making, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Savolainen, J 2000, Inequality, welfare state, and homicide: Further support for the institutional anomie theory, Crminology, vol no pp. [...]
[...] The conditioning factors that Agnew stipulates are as follows: the importance that a person lays to the values, identities, and goals which he feels to be threatened; the coping skills of a person; the resources that an individual has, such as self-esteem, money, amount of social control, social support, and the relationship that one has especially with delinquent and non-delinquent peers; the access that an individual has to alternative goals, values, and identities, and the resources that a person has, especially those that are elated to problem solving and intelligence (Agnew & Brezina, 2002). There are a number of conditioning factors, both of which are attributed to internal and external constraints that greatly impact on the way in which an individual responds to incidences of strain (Shaw & McKay, 1999). Both delinquent and criminal outcomes are a must in the case of strain. Strain brings in pressure that is normally directed towards deviance and crime. There are a number of ways in which people can succumb to such pressure. [...]
[...] Shaw, C R & McKay, H D 1999, Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Area: A Study of Rates of Delinquents in Relation to Differential Characteristics of Local Communities in American Cities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Simons, B L & Yi-Fu, E A 2003, Incidents of discrimination and risk for delinquency: A longitudinal test for strain theory with an African American sample, Justice Quarterly, vol no pp. 827-854. Stiles, B Liu, X & Kaplan, H B 2000, Relative deprivation and deviant adaptations: The mediating effects of negative self-feelings, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, vol no pp. 64-90. [...]
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