Belastungstheorie

Die Belastungstheorie (engl. strain theory) der Kriminalität behauptet eine kriminogene Wirkung von individuellen und gesellschaftlichen Widersprüchen und Spannungen. Während die Widersprüche auf der gesamtgesellschaftlichen Ebene z.B. in Mertons Anomietheorie eine große Rolle spielen, hat Robert Agnew (1992) den Aspekt der individuellen Belastung in seiner "General Strain Theory" (Allgemeine Belastungstheorie) stärker in den Vordergrund gerückt.

Strukturelle Belastung entsteht aus inadäquaten Sozialstrukturen oder inadäquaten Regulierungen, die sich auf die individuelle Definition der Situation, insbesondere von Zielen und Mitteln, auswirken können. Individuelle Belastung bezieht sich auf Friktionen und Notlagen, die von einem Individuum in bezug auf seine Bedürfnisbefriedigung wahrnimmt.

Agnew (1992) postuliert, dass die Belastungstheorie zur Erklärung von Kriminalität und Abweichung von ihrer Verknüpfung mit Schicht- und Kulturvariablen gelöst und auf selbstgenerierte Normen re-fokussiert werden müsste. Seine Allgemeine Belastungstheorie ist weder strukturell noch interpersonal, sondern emotional und konzentriert sich auf die aktuelle soziale Umgebung des Individuums. Seiner Ansicht nach resultiert Belastung aus:

• tatsächlichem oder antizipiertem Versagen bei dem Versuch, positiv bewertete Stimuli zu erreichen
• tatsächlichem oder antizipiertem Zusammentreffen mit negativen Stimuli
• negativen Beziehungen zu anderen.

Auch dann, wenn Individuen nicht so behandelt werden, wie sie erwarten (oder zu verdienen glauben) behandelt zu werden, werden sie den Glauben an die Rolle anderer in der Erwartungserfüllung verlieren. Ärger und Frustration bestätigen negative Beziehungen. Sollten Versuche der Zielerreichung durch andere blockiert werden, können negative Gefühle zu einem Druck führen, der viele Individuen leicht dazu führen kann, sich illegitimer Mittel der Zielerreichung zu bedienen. Häufig wird es sich dabei um einseitige Aktionen handeln, da das Individuum natürlich bemüht sein wird, sich unangenehme Zurückweisungen durch andere zu ersparen. Das wiederum verstärkt die allgemeine Entfremdung. Wenn spezielle Zurückweisungserfahrungen in ein Gefühl verallgemeinert werden, dass die Umwelt wenig taugt, dann können stärkere Emotionen entstehen, die wiederum ein Engagement in stärker abweichendem Verhalten, etwa kriminellen Handlungen, wahrscheinlicher machen können. Dies gilt besonders für jüngere Leute - aber auch in der Gruppe, meint Agnew, müsste weitere Forschung sich mit der Dimension (magnitude), zeitlichen Nähe (recency), Dauer (duration) und der Ballung (clustering) belastender Ereignisse befassen, um zu bestimmen, ob eine Person mit Belastungen auf konforme oder kriminelle Weise umgehe. Insbesondere identifizierte er Faktoren wie

• Temperament
• Intelligenz
• Interpersonelle Kompetenzen
• Selbstwirksamkeit
• Kontakte mit kriminellen Gleichaltrigen sowie
• konventionelle soziale Unterstützung.

Als Quellen von Belastung operationalisierte Akers (2000: 159) die Agnew'schen Gedanken wie folgt:

• Failure to achieve positively valued goals: the gap between expectations and actual achievements will derive from short- and long-term personal goals, and some of those goals will never be realized because of unavoidable circumstances including both inherent weaknesses and opportunities blocked by others; and the difference between the view of what a person believes the outcome should be and what actually results increases personal disappointment. Frustration is not necessarily due to any outside interference with valued goals, but a direct effect on anger, and has indirect effects on serious crime and aggression.

Agnew and White (1992) have produced empirical evidence suggesting that general strain theory was positively able to relate delinquents and drug users, and that the strongest effect on the delinquents studied was the delinquency of their peers. They were interested in drug use because it did not appear to represent an attempt to direct anger or escape pain, but "is used primarily to manage the negative affect caused by strain."

Up to this point, strain theory had been concerned with types of strain rather than sources of strain whereas the stress of events can be shown to interfere with the achievement of natural expectations or just and fair outcomes. These may be significant events or minor "hassles" that accumulate and demoralize over time. Frustration leads to dissatisfaction, resentment, and anger — all the emotions customarily associated with strain in criminology. It is natural for individuals to feel distress when they are denied just rewards for their efforts when compared to the efforts and rewards given to similar others for similar outcomes. Agnew (1992) treats anger as the most critical emotion since it is almost always directed outwards and is often related to breakdowns in relationships. Research shows that the stress/crime relationship appears to hold regardless of guilt feelings, age, and capacity to cope when events occur simultaneously or in close succession.

Steven F. Messner and Richard Rosenfeld

Messner and Rosenfeld (1994) proposed a Theory of Institutional Anomie (sometimes called "American Dream" Theory) representing a radicalization of Merton's key ideas by linking Strain Theory to Social Control Theory and focusing on contradictions in both the cultural system and the opportunity structures to be pursued by everyone in a mass society dominated by huge multinational corporations. Specifically they built on the section of Merton’s strain theory dealing with emphasized goals. They seek to explain the cause of the United States’ elevated crime rate in terms of the American Dream which is a broad, cultural ethos that entails a commitment to the goal of material success, to be pursued by everyone. But if the chances for success are genuinely open to everyone, this belief creates an intense fear of failure. As did Merton, Rosenfeld and Messner (1995:141) claim that there is a causal link between the crime rate and the core values contained within the American Dream. Their argument is not only that concern for economics has come to dominate U.S. culture, but that the noneconomic institutions in society have tended to become subservient to the economy. For example, the educational system now prepares students for the job market rather than offering a general education, politicians are elected on the strength of the economy, and despite lip service to family values, workers and their families are expected to subordinate their lives to the needs of the employer. Goals other than material success such as parenting, teaching, and serving the community, are no longer considered valuable. Their work also blames the high crime rate on the institutional imbalance of power. As in the work of Merton, and Cloward and Ohlin, there is differential access to opportunity. Those individuals with the means and the power can succeed while those individuals without it are left by the wayside. The cause of crime is the anomie fostered by the American Dream and, since the emphasis is on the efficiency of the market economy, crime is often seen as the most efficient competitive strategy for making immediate material gains. The Dream also embodies the values of achievement and individualism. Achievement involves the use of material success to measure one's self-worth. Individualism refers to the notion of intense personal competition to achieve material success.

References

Agnew, R. (1992). "Foundation for a General Strain Theory". Criminology 30(1), 47-87 Agnew, R. & White, H. (1992). "An Empirical Test of General Strain Theory" Criminology 30(4): 475-99. Akers, R. (2000). Criminological Theories: Introduction, Evaluation, and Application. Los Angeles: Roxbury. Cloward, R. (1959). "Illegitimate Means, Anomie and Deviant Behavior" American Sociological Review 24(2): 164- 76. Cloward, R. & Ohlin, L. (1960). Delinquency and Opportunity. NY: Free Press. Cohen, A. (1955). Delinquent Boys. NY: Free Press. Cohen, A. (1965). "The Sociology of the Deviant Act: Anomie Theory and Beyond". American Sociological Review 30: 5-14. Cohen, A. (1977). "The Concept of Criminal Organization". British Journal of Criminology 17: 97-111. Featherstone, Richard & Deflem, Mathieu. (2003). "Anomie and Strain: Context and Consequences of Merton's Two Theories". Sociological Inquiry 73(4):471-489. [1] Hirschi, Travis. (1969). Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press. Merton, Robert K. (1938). "Social Structure and Anomie". American Sociological Review 3: 672-82. Merton, Robert K. (1959). “Social Conformity, Deviation, and Opportunity-Structures: A Comment on the Contributions of Dubin and Cloward”. American Sociological Review 24:177-189. Merton, Robert K. (1968). Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press. Messner, S & Rosenfeld, R. (1994). Crime and the American Dream. Belmont: Wadsworth. Polk, K. (1969). "Class, Strain and Rebellion Among Adolescents" Social Problems 17: 214-24. Polk, K., & Schafer, W. (eds.). (1972). Schools and Delinquency. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Reiss, A., & Rhodes, A. (1963). "Status Deprivation and Delinquent Behavior" Sociological Quarterly 4: 135- 49. Rosenfeld, Richard & Messner, Steven. (1995). “Crime and the American Dream” in Criminological Theory:Past to Present (Essential Readings). Los Angeles: Roxbury. pp141-150.

gekürzt aus Wikipedia engl.; wartet auf Übersetzung und Neustrukturierung.