Does the General Strain Theory Explain Gambling and Substance Use?

General Strain Theory (GST: Agnew Criminology 30:47-87, 1992) posits that deviant behaviour results from adaptation to strain and the consequent negative emotions. Empirical research on GST has mainly focused on aggressive behaviours, while only few research studies have considered alternative manifestations of deviance, like substance use and gambling. The aim of the present study is to test the ability of GST to explain gambling behaviours and substance use.

[Stalking: old behaviour new crime. Reflections on 11 cases assessed in the judicial district of Bari].

Specific definitions aside, the behaviours that are generally associated with stalking may be classified into three categories of acts: 1) following (including showing up at the victim's home and workplace, maintaining surveillance, and setting up coincidences); 2) communicating (by telephone, mail, leaving notes, graffiti, gifts, e-mail, and internet); including the ordering of goods and services in the victim's name; 3) attacking or committing acts of violence (threats, direct harassment of the victim or of people close to the victim, damaging of personal goods, false accusations, physical or sexual violence). The work here presented proposes to find empirical confirmation of the data cited in the scientific literature with particular attention paid to the studies carried out by Mullen, Pathé, Purcell and Meloy who proposed a criminological diagnostic category for stalkers, delineating their behaviors . We go on to highlight patterns of behavior, as well as physical and social characteristics as postulated by these authors, and found in the molesters investigated in this study.

[Juvenile criminality: general strain theory and the reactive-proactive aggression trait].

The aims of the present study are to test General Strain Theory's (GST) assumptions, and to integrate the model including the proactive-reactive aggression trait. GST hypothesizes crime to be enacted in response to extra-personal stimuli (strain) and their subsequent negative emotions, especially anger. However, there exist also internally-driven manifestations of crime (instrumental or proactive), motivated by stimuli that are of an intrapersonal origin.