danryan.us

Previous versions of strain theory emphasized the blocking of legitimate means of obtaining socially sanctioned desires or pleasures. The revised strain theory adds to this the idea that sometimes legitimate means for avoiding pain may be blocked. A student may ditch school, for example, because she has no way of getting out of a bad classroom situation.

Being tough, alien, mean

A certain amount of interpersonal violence can only be explained by sudden situational snapping in which a person encounters a situation that is so thoroughly humiliating that they either act out or become symbolically annihilated. These can be seen almost as examples of "crime as social control."