A Systematic Review of GST’s Conditioning Hypothesis

• In Event: Research on the Impact of School Conditions, the Role of Cultural Factors, the Conditioning Hypotheses, and the Empirical Evidence of General Strain Theory

Abstract

GST recognizes that most people experience strain and yet do not engage in crime, and thus hypothesizes that the relationship between strain and crime is conditioned by a number of individual and environmental characteristics that either increase or decrease the likelihood of criminal coping. This aspect of the theory, sometimes called the “conditioning hypothesis”, has received mixed support at best, and has recently been identified as “the major problem” of the theory by its author, Robert Agnew.

Although some effort has been made to review the quantitative tests of GST’s conditioning hypothesis, these reviews have not systematically examined the different factors that Agnew suggests should condition the effect of strain on crime. Consequently, it is currently not possible to identify which conditioning factors are the most important for researchers to focus on. To correct this gap in knowledge, I systematically review the major conditioning factors that Agnew has identified as potentially important. The results contribute to our understanding of which factors are most likely to condition the effect of strain on crime as well as the types of strains and circumstances under which conditional effects are most likely to be found.

Author

• Nic Swagar, Florida State University