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General Strain Theory

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Handbook on Crime and Deviance

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

According to general strain theory (GST), individuals who experience strain or stress often become upset and sometimes cope with crime. This simple idea is at the core of GST, although the theory elaborates on this idea in a number of ways. For instance, GST specifies the major types of strains, identifies the types of strains that are most likely to cause crime, explains why these strains cause crime, and explains why only some strained individuals resort to criminal coping. Further, GST provides an explanation for offending over the life course and group differences in crime, and suggests strategies for controlling crime. In this chapter, these aspects of GST are described in detail.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322, USA

    Robert Agnew

  2. Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 30306, USA

    Timothy Brezina

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  1. Robert Agnew
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  2. Timothy Brezina
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Marvin D. Krohn

  2. Department of Criminal Justice, Radford University, Radford, VA, USA

    Nicole Hendrix

  3. School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA

    Gina Penly Hall

  4. School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA

    Alan J. Lizotte

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Agnew, R., Brezina, T. (2019). General Strain Theory. In: Krohn, M., Hendrix, N., Penly Hall, G., Lizotte, A. (eds) Handbook on Crime and Deviance. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20779-3_8

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