General Strain Theory 1

While A-level sociology teachers will be very familiar with the kind of traditional strain theory formulated by writers like Merton they are probably less-familiar with its contemporary updating in the work of writers like Robert Agnew.

This Update starts by looking briefly at traditional strain theory in terms of it's broad strengths and weaknesses.

These are used as the basis for a newer implementation of strain theory - Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST) - that seeks to show how strain theory can be applied in a range of ways to areas like gender and ethnicity.