Strain Social Learning and Social Disorganization Theories

¶ … Theories

The relationship between Postivist, Social Disorganization, Social Learning and Strain Theories is one of evolutionary growth and development in terms of building, shaping, remolding and altering the perspective of how human nature is impacted by various factors.

The Posititvist Theory was rooted in an analysis of both biological and psychological factors as they applied to criminal behavior. This was the focus on a natural explanation, the experiences gathered through sense data to explain phenomena. One of the most basic and brutal concepts born of this theory was that criminals are born rather than made by their environment. In other words -- crime is in their blood: they simply had bad natures. One of the main Positivist theorists was Cesare Lombroso.

In response to this theory -- and out of the argument of nature vs. nurture -- came Social Disorganization Theory and Social Learning Theory. The former stipulated that location and environmental factors were the real causes of crime. For example, bad neighborhoods that had no social fabric, organization principles or controls, would naturally produce criminal activity as a result of the social disorganization inherent in the social system. The latter (social learning theory) viewed that criminal activity was not based on one's nature but rather on what one saw. In other words, criminal activity was a learned behavior. One did what one saw others do, and thus the cycle of crime is perpetuated, as others learned to copy and so on. Both of these theories essentially rejected the notion of Lombroso and his Positivist Theory by arguing that it was "nurture" (or the lack thereof) that led to crime -- not nature.

Strain Theory developed as a response to all three of these concepts. It is like a hybrid theory of the three, neither emphasizing nature over nurture or nurture over nature but pointing out that criminal actions are the result of a strain within the human character as it is impacted by and pulled in different directions by opposing elements. Thus, there may be two sides with a single human character, one that seeks to violate a law and serve only the self rather than the community or the common good, and one that seeks to be law-abiding. Then there are external pressures that may add to the strain by pushing or pulling it in one direction or the other. As Agnew (2008) notes, Strain theory is different from Positivist, Social Disorganization and Social Learning theories in that it examines the sets of social relationships that move the individual towards delinquency. Whereas, for example, Social Learning asserts that individuals learn behavior from peers and members of their immediate community (Akers, Jennings, 2009), Strain theory focuses more on the impact of negative relationships and how delinquency results from pressurized negative states (anger, resentment) thus straining one's ability to exercise good, clear thinking and upright moral behavior (Agnew, 2008).