General Strain Theory Bullying Childhood Abuse

General Strain Theory
Summary
General strain theory (GST) offers a unique explanation of delinquency and crime, which is in direct contrast to control and learning theories. The differentiation is through the type of social relationship that leads to delinquency, and the motivation for delinquency. By analyzing GST, we can determine the effect or how criminal behavior is developed. GST looks at how a negative relationship will affect and individual and their possibility of developing towards crime. A negative relationship can be defined as any relationship of other people that is not consistent with the individual's beliefs of how they should be treated. In this paper, we have analyzed two articles all focusing on GST. However, the two articles differ in the negative stimuli being researched. Cullen, Unnever, Hartman, Turner, and Agnew (2008) is analyzing the impact of bullying while Watts and McNulty (2013) is analyzing the impact of childhood abuse. Both articles are looking at the linkage between the negative stimuli and the development of criminal or delinquent behavior. Both authors have managed to demonstrate there is direct like between bullying and development of criminal behavior and between childhood abuse and criminal behavior development. The strain that is being experienced by the children or individual results in anger, and as Agnew (2007) demonstrated, anger is one of the major factors of GST. The effect of anger towards deviant behavior has been well articulated by other researchers and the two articles have managed to create a link that demonstrates that with bullying and childhood abuse, a person does develop anger that will lead them towards an escape through criminal or delinquent behavior. Family-based strains have also been shown to cause criminogenic effects.
Cullen et al. (2008) and Watts and McNulty (2013) are both testing general strain theory in their different criminal justice research articles. General strain theory (GST) offers a unique explanation of delinquency and crime, which is in direct contrast to control and learning theories. The differentiation is through the type of social relationship that leads to delinquency, and the motivation for delinquency. GST focuses on the negative treatments that an individual experiences from others and it is the only major crime theory that focuses on the role of negative emotions in the etiology of offending (Warner & Fowler, 2003). The experiences of strain tend to generate negative emotions like frustration, anger, despair, and depression (Cullen et al., 2008). In turn, these negative emotions will create pressure in the individual for corrective action with delinquency and crime is one of the possible responses. GST states strains will likely increase the chance a person will be involved in crime, especially strains that are high in magnitude, which is seen as unjust or is associated with low social control. Some of the strains include parental rejection, a desperate need for money, criminal victimization, and discrimination. Crime can be used as a way of reducing or escaping from the strains, seeking revenge against the source of the strain, or alleviating negative emotions. GST has been applied to a scope of problems like explaining race/ethnicity, age, gender, community, and societal differences in crime rates. GST has also been applied to many crime and deviance types like police deviance, suicide, bullying, corporate crime, eating disorders, and terrorism. While most of the evidence has been shown to support that the strains do increase the likelihood of crime, the predictions of GST on the type of people who are likely to respond to the strains with a crime is not well supported in the literature.
GST looks at how a negative relationship will affect and individual and their possibility of developing towards crime. A negative relationship can be defined as any relationship of other people that is not consistent with the individual's beliefs of how they should be treated. Strain theory by itself looked at only preventing a person from achieving a positively valued goal in society. Agnew (2002) added two other types for them to develop GST. The first one looked at when a person took away a positively valued stimulus a person possesses and the second one looked at the presence of a negative stimulus presenting negative stimuli.
Comparing and Contrasting the Articles
Cullen et al. (2008) is making use of GST to determine the impact of bullying on delinquent involvement and substance usage. Watts and McNulty (2013) is using GST to test a model of childhood abuse and crime relationship. Cullen et al. (2008) believes that bullying is one of the strains that a child or adolescent can undergo that would result in them developing criminal behavior as a way of coping with the strain. Victimization has the potential to increase the chances of victimization, which could be a risk factor for subsequent offending. There are diverse forms of victimization that a person can experience like harassment at the workplace, bullying in schools, physical and sexual abuse in the family, robbery in the streets, and sexual assault when on a date. These may be age-related and they could have gender-specific influences on the response by the victim. Focusing on the impact of bullying in school and its contribution towards juvenile delinquency, the authors have managed to demonstrate that using GST there is a direct linkage between the two. The authors noted that the impact of bullying is stronger amongst students who have a weaker school social bond and have higher levels of aggressive attitudes. However, we should assume that this means that bullying could not affect any student in the future. Watts and McNulty (2013) with a focus on the link between childhood abuse and development of offending behavior in adolescents has managed to demonstrate that the strain experienced by the child has the potential to result in delinquency when the child becomes an adolescent or an adult. Childhood physical and sexual abuse are both predictors of juvenile delinquency in children.
Cullen et al. (2008) discovered that there is a small direct effect that school bullying has the potential to result in delinquency. This was established for both males and females. This indicates that peer victimization does play a role in fostering wayward conduct (Agnew, 2007). The authors posit that even with a small effect this does not mean that the linkage is unimportant or inconsequential. The results of the study were for a limited time and this could explain why there was a small correlation. However, it should be understood that bullying is mostly an ongoing activity and it persists across the entire school year/years. The strain experienced through bullying could mount up over time and it could become criminogenic much later in life. Bullying could also add on to other strains that an individual is currently experiencing and this could result in increasing the person's criminality.
Watts and McNulty (2013) on the other hand had far much conclusive results in their study as compared to Cullen et al. (2008). The researchers discovered the experiences of childhood physical and sexual abuse have the potential to later affect criminal behavior. There is a significant increase in self-reported offending in adolescence for both males and females with children who were abused (physically and sexually). The effect of sexual abuse is more pronounced in males. Children who are abused tend to develop depressive symptoms that have the potential to mediate on criminal offending. This is in line with GST where strains in life have the potential to result in offending criminal behavior.
Both articles complement the results of each other by demonstrating the impact of life strains like bullying in school and childhood abuse on the development of criminal behavior. By relying on GST both studies have managed to demonstrate that criminal behavior can be predicted based on the strains that a person experiences in their life. When combined with other life strains like depression, a person can seek corrective action through crime and delinquency. The results can be used to predict criminal behavior in both males and females.
Parts of The Theory Being Tested
In the article by Cullen et al. (2008) the researchers are testing the third part of the theory that focuses on the introduction of negative stimuli. When a student is being bullied, they are being introduced to a negative stimulus every day of their school life. The student is not able to escape this negative stimulus as they have to attend school daily and the bully is always in their school. This will generate anger as the student is not able to escape the negative stimuli being presented. In an attempt to escape the negative stimuli, the student could result in delinquency like skipping school. If this does not work, the student could seek revenge by planning an attack on the student either in school or outside school. This could be done with the student coming to school with a weapon and directing it towards his or her bullies.
Bullying generates anger and anger is one of the major factors that GST if analyzing and its effects on deviant behavior. Bullying generates anger in the student as he or she is being ridiculed in front of other students or he is being physically molested in private by other students. Anger has to do with feeling powerless and lacking anything they can do to overcome this bullying. With the continuous presence of these negative stimuli, the student will be yearning for a day when they are not in school so they can avoid being bullied. However, these days are few, and bullies continue where they left off when school resumes. Cullen et al. (2008) has managed to demonstrate that with continuous bullying a student is likely to become violent or result in deviant criminal behavior as their way of coping with the negative stimuli.
Watts and McNulty (2013) on the other hand focuses on the impact of child abuse on the development of delinquency or criminal behavior. In this case, they are also focusing on the third aspect of GST, which is the introduction of negative stimuli. Childhood physical or sexual abuse is a negative stimulus as it robs the child their innocence and it denies them the joys of life. The child will be facing negativity as they always question why this has to happen to them and not to other children. With a basic understanding that violence should not be happening, the child will be seeking a way to escape the violence and this would result in them engaging in criminal behavior. Due to too much pain, the child could seek out drugs to fight off the pain and once they begin to use illegal substances their behavior will be changed. The child would need to get money to buy the drugs and they would be forced to steal. This will be the start of their juvenile delinquency.
Physical and sexual abuse generates anger in the child as he or she is being beaten or being abused and they will need to find a way to escape all of this. There are instances of children running away from home or surviving through it all by hiding their feelings. Hiding those feelings does not work forever. When they reach adulthood chances of them remembering the pain is most likely. This will result in deviant behavior later on in life and could ruin a person's life as they will begin to engage in criminal behavior. Running away from home forced a child to experience the harsh life on the streets and here they will become a juvenile delinquent as he or she will have to fend for themself through illegal acts like stealing or robbing people.
Both articles can be linked to the self-esteem of the individual. When being bullied or abused a person's self-esteem is being impacted, which could be related to crime. Without any self-esteem, a person does not care what others think of him or her and they will be willingly participating in criminal activities. The two articles are complimentary of each other in that they have presented the same part of GST in two different ways. This demonstrates the impact of negative stimuli in an individual's life and how it can result in the development of criminal or delinquent behavior. By using two different aspects of victimization, the authors have reinforced GST and they have managed to show how criminal behavior can be predicted early. However, it should be noted that not all children or individuals who face these negative stimuli are likely to develop criminal or delinquent behaviors.
Therefore, caution should be taken before judging a person who is undergoing victimization. What is needed is to follow-up with the individual and offer them the guidance and support they need to ensure that they do not resort to criminal acts as a way for them to escape or deal with their anger.
References
Agnew, R. (2002). Experienced, vicarious, and anticipated strain: An exploratory study on physical victimization and delinquency. Justice Quarterly, 19(4), 603-632.
Agnew, R. (2007). Pressured into crime: An overview of general strain theory. Los Angeles,CA: Roxbury.
Cullen, F. T., Unnever, J. D., Hartman, J. L., Turner, M. G., & Agnew, R. (2008). Gender, bullying victimization, and juvenile delinquency: A test of general strain theory. Victims and Offenders, 3(4), 346-364.
Warner, B. D., & Fowler, S. K. (2003). Strain and violence: Testing a general strain theory model of community violence. Journal of Criminal Justice, 31(6), 511-521.
Watts, S. J., & McNulty, T. L. (2013). Childhood abuse and criminal behavior: Testing a general strain theory model. Journal of interpersonal violence, 28(15), 3023-3040.