Strain, Neighborhood Context, and Crime: Testing Recent Developments in GST

• In Event: Financial Processes, Strain and Crime

Abstract

GST has received much empirical support since it was introduced, with one critical exception: the conditioning hypothesis has received mixed support at best. Agnew recently addressed this lack of support directly by giving theoretical and practical guidance on how researchers should conceptualize and test for conditional relationships between strain and crime. In short, Agnew argues that only certain individuals experiencing certain types of strain in certain circumstances are likely to engage in criminal coping. To date, few studies have drawn on this new guidance, and even those continue to find no support for Agnew’s renewed claim that the relationship between strain and crime is conditional.

The current study builds on this recent work in important ways. First, it addresses the “certain individuals” and “certain types of strain” parts of Agnew’s argument by using a data source – the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods – that includes the types of individuals that are likely to be subject to criminogenic strains. Second, it addresses the “certain circumstances” part of Agnew’s argument by including measures of neighborhood context as conditioning factors. Results are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research.

Authors

• Nic Swagar, Florida State University

• Brian Stults, Florida State University