Do Frustrated Economic Expectations and Objective Economic Inequity Promote Crime?
| Author | Nicole Leeper Piquero,Cesar J. Rebellon,Sherod Thaxton,Alex R. Piquero |
| Published date | 01 January 2009 |
| Date | 01 January 2009 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1477370808098105 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Volume 6 (1): 47–71: 1477-3708
DOI: 10.1177/1477370808098105
Copyright © 2009 European Society of
Criminology and SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC
www.sagepublications.com
Do Frustrated Economic Expectations
and Objective Economic Inequity
Promote Crime?
A Randomized Experiment Testing Agnew’s General
Strain Theory
Cesar J. Rebellon
University of New Hampshire, USA
Nicole Leeper Piquero
Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
Alex R. Piquero
University of Maryland College Park, USA
Sherod Thaxton
Office of the Federal Defender for the Eastern District of California, USA
ABSTRACT
Although prior research concerning Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST) has
generated renewed support for the perspective, it remains limited in two critical
ways. First, research tends to measure strain in terms of noxious stimuli while
neglecting Agnew’s conception of strain as the disjunction between expected
and actual outcomes or as the disjunction between fair and actual outcomes.
Second, studies rely exclusively on correlational designs that preclude causal
assertions about the relationships among strain, anger, and crime. This study
addresses both limitations by conducting the first experimental test of GST.
Results indicate that (1) respondents assigned at random to experimental
conditions involving strain as a disjunction between expected and actual
outcomes or between fair and actual outcomes report significantly higher levels
of situational anger, (2) high levels of situational anger are significantly
associated with a higher self-reported likelihood of engaging in theft from an
employer, and (3) these relationships are not significantly conditioned by
perceived social support.
KEY WORDS
Expectations / Crime / General Strain / Strain.
Strain theory
Historically, strain theories of crime contend that individuals are pressured
into crime as a result of some sort of goals/means disjuncture. Although the
intellectual roots of these theories can be traced to Durkheim, Merton’s
(1938) conception of strain theory provided the first account detailing the
anomic outcome of crime, especially among lower classes, from a process
in which society’s social structure does not provide the (legitimate) means
necessary for individuals to attain their economic goals. Extensions and
modifications of Merton’s theory by Cohen (1955), who focused on the role
of status as the goal to be pursued by middle- and lower-class boys, and
Cloward and Ohlin (1960), who observed that blocked access to legitimate
and illegitimate opportunities, which vary across different types of commu-
nities, would increase the likelihood of antisocial and criminal
activity, served to promote strain theory explanations of crime and
deviance.
General Strain Theory
Although empirical research has yielded little support for traditional strain
theories that predict crime to result from unrealized economic aspirations,
Agnew’s (1992, 2001, 2006) General Strain Theory (GST) has expanded
upon them in four ways to generate a resurgence of the strain perspective.
First, whereas prior strain theories conceived of strain as a purely economic
phenomenon involving unrealized aspirations for middle-class status and/or
monetary success, Agnew conceives of strain more broadly as a social
psychological phenomenon subsuming multiple sources of frustrated aspir-
ations. Second, GST draws on the equity/justice and stress literatures
(Adams 1963; Hegtvedt 1990; Pearlin 1989) to suggest that strain results
not only from unrealized aspirations, but also from unrealized expectations,
perceived injustice, the removal of positively valued stimuli, and the impos-
ition of noxious stimuli. Third, GST is integrative, suggesting that strain is
most likely to promote crime when the strain results in negative emotions and
under conditions of low social support, limited coping resources, high asso-
ciation with criminal peers, and low social control. Fourth, GST suggests that
48 European Journal of Criminology 6(1)
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