General Strain Theory, Peer Rejection, and Delinquency/Crime

Abstract

The development of general strain theory (GST) has led to a renewed focus on the influence of negative life experiences on antisocial behavior. Although a number of studies have generated an impressive array of support for the theory, several avenues remain open for research. In this article, we examine how a specific noxious stimuli, peer rejection, relates to delinquency/crime, and the degree of shared relation among peer rejection and delinquency/crime. Using data from a national sample of 413 children and adolescents, analyses indicated two highly stable trajectories of peer rejection and three trajectories of delinquency/crime, that peer rejection and delinquency/crime were not strongly related in general, but a joint analysis of their relationship revealed that high peer rejection was related to high delinquency/crime among males but not among females. Implications and directions for future research are highlighted.

A Developmental Perspective on Peer Rejection, Deviant Peer Affiliation, and Conduct Problems Among Youth

“…Alternatively, peer rejection may confer risk for conduct problems, consistent with the substantial evidence that peer rejection is associated prospectively with conduct problems [23–24, 64–65, 97–98]. Indeed, peer rejection, particularly stable rejection patterns, uniquely predicts later externalizing problems even after controlling for concurrent externalizing symptoms [96, 99–101].…”

A Multi-indicator Approach for Smart Security Policy Making

“…Location quotients are, in other words, an analytical tool for the local compositional structure of crime: they can define, together with socio-economic characteristics, the crime profile of areas via the prevalent form of crime (Carcach and Muscat 2002). Location quotients have attracted the interest of a number of academic researchers (Andresen 2007;Higgins et al 2010;Zhang and Peterson 2007;Cahill 2005;Carcach and Muscat 2002) because they are ''not plagued with the lack of a control variable (crime counts) or the choice of an appropriate control variable (crime rates)'' (Andresen 2007(Andresen , p. 2423. It is at best unclear, though, if location quotients are the kind of summary measure of crime that criminology looks for: while some found it effective in spatial regression analyses even as a stand-alone measure for crime (Andresen 2007) and while they certainly have an appeal for planning locally tailored responses to crime, others have suggested that they can be misleading and found them less satisfactory in statistical analysis than crime density (Zhang and Peterson 2007).…”

A structural equation analysis of the relationships between PTSD, depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation : is general strain theory a viable framework for explaining suicide risk among correctional staff?

“…The relationship between various individual measures of the three sources of objective strain, composite measures of these strains, and measures of delinquency are supported in other tests of GST (Bao et al, 2007;Baron, 2004;Baron & Hartnagel, 2002;Mazerolle, 1998;Higgins et al, 2011). However, by not measuring levels of subjective strain or the mediating effects of emotions on strain and delinquency, these studies fail to account for GST's distinguishing feature from other strain theories which may explain some of the mixed support found for individual strains such as neighborhood problems or traditional strain (Mazerolle, 1998;Paternoster & Mazerolle, 1994).…”

“…Most recent studies focus on the "negative affect" part of the theory. Some studies have focused on examining what types or sources of strain are most likely to evoke specific negative emotions (Bao, Haas, & Pi, 2007;Baron, 2004;Broidy, 2001;Cullen, Unnever, Hartman, Turner, & Agnew, 2008;Higgins, Piquero & Piquero, 2011;Rebellon, Piquero, Piquero, & Sherod, 2009). While other studies have focused on exploring the mediating effects these negative emotions have on strain and delinquency (Agnew et al, 2002;Aseltine et al, 2000;Bishopp, & Boots, 2014;Mazerolle, Piquero, & Capowich, 2003;Ménard & Arter, 2013;Moon, Morash, McClusky, & Hwang, 2012;Rebellan et al, 2012).…”

“…While other studies have focused on exploring the mediating effects these negative emotions have on strain and delinquency (Agnew et al, 2002;Aseltine et al, 2000;Bishopp, & Boots, 2014;Mazerolle, Piquero, & Capowich, 2003;Ménard & Arter, 2013;Moon, Morash, McClusky, & Hwang, 2012;Rebellan et al, 2012). Other studies, however, have aimed at finding support for the relationship between strain and delinquency without the mediation of negative affect and have returned mixed results, especially when analyzing longitudinal data (Agnew & White, 1992;Higgins et al, 2011;Mazerolle, 1998;Paternoster & Mazerolle, 1994). Agnew & White (1992), for example, investigated the relationships of 8 specific strains, a composite measure of general strain and their relationship with delinquency, while controlling for social control and attachment.…”