Reactionary and Preemptive Coping Strategies of Inmates: A Qualitative Assessment of General Strain Theory

• In Event: Inside Prison: Exploring Inmate Coping Strategies and Institutional Misconduct

Abstract

Work on Agnew’s general strain theory (GST) has shown the causal importance of strain, negative emotions, and coping strategies on people’s decisions to engage in crime and delinquency. The core assumptions of GST suggest that knowing how individuals interpret strain is key to understanding how such conditions eventuate into crime and delinquency. However, research on GST has yet to examine the phenomenology of strain from the perspectives of offenders themselves. Here we rely on interviews with 40 incarcerated men in the southern United States to understand how they cope with specific strains in prison (i.e., theft and disrespect). We find evidence of behavioral, cognitive, and emotional coping as responses to strain. Our findings also suggest that the men formed long-term strategies to cope with anticipated strain. Such preemptive coping took the form of approaches for avoiding strains, forming allies, developing reputations, changing perspective to avoid escalating strain, and permanently redefining the strain. These strategies allowed them to avoid or condition the intensity of strain and may be more important than reactionary strains to avoid improper coping. Findings contribute to the development of GST’s coping strategies, and have implications for how we understand strain theory in general.

Authors

• Lindsay Leban, University of Florida

• Stephanie Michelle Cardwell, University of Texas at Dallas

• Heith Copes, University of Alabama at Birmingham