Arneklev, Bruce J.

This thesis provides a comprehensive review of the evolution of Robert Agnew’s
General Strain Theory of Delinquency, and tests his 2002 extension using two
subsamples from the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Juveniles between
12 and 17, and “emerging” adults that are 18 years old. Including an “emerging” adult
subsample makes this analysis one of the first full tests of adults. Additionally, this
analysis is the first partial test of Agnew’s 2013 extension of General Strain Theory.
Overall, the results of the analysis lend support to Agnew’s 2002 extension. Measures of
strain are revealed to significantly effect measures of negative emotionality and low selfconstraint,
and measures of negative emotionality and low self-constraint significantly
affect delinquency/deviance and illicit substance use. A major limitation to the thesis is
that there is no negative emotionality measure of anger, which is Agnew’s (1985; 1992)
key measures of negative emotionality.

In A General Theory Of Crime Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990) suggest that "low self-control" is an enduring individual characteristic that is the product of inadequate child-rearing. Sampson and Laub's (1993) Crime In the Making: Pathways and Turning Points Through Life somewhat supports this contention. However, the latter authors also suggest that later life experiences might change the direction of the life path (and self-control). This thesis examines whether adequate child-rearing is the key causal determinant of low self-control in later life. It further tests whether later life-course transitions might alter and/or impact low self-control. The results suggest that the impact of early child-hood experiences continue to have an influence on self-control in later life. However, they also suggest that later life-course events (or transitions) can alter the proposed stability of such control. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Police department attitudes and behaviors associated with faithfully implementing community policing may determine its success for combating social disorganization. The literature review presents a background for understanding community policing and its link to the theory of social disorganization. It is hypothesized that supportive attitudes toward community policing will produce behaviors consistent with its application that may help in combating the disadvantages of social disorganization. Secondhand public data of a two-part community policing survey is used to test each hypothesis. Analysis procedures used for this test consist of reliability comparisons, bivariate correlation and finally OLS regression. The results of this thesis indicate a promising causal relationship between supportive attitudes playing a role in shaping behaviors consistent with the performance of community policing techniques. The results also reveal that police agencies that have supportive attitudes toward community oriented policing also perceive that it can have a positive impact in combating social disorganization.