Testing the Leading Crime Theories
An Alternative Strategy Focusing on Motivational Processes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23339442 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Robert Agnew (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1995 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 363-398 |
| Publication date | 1995-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-4278 • E-ISSN: 1552-731X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022427895032004001 |
| OpenAlex | W2164589261 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 60 |
| References cited | 83 |
Empirical tests of the leading crime theories usually develop measures of the independent variables in a theory or set of theories, and then examine the effect of these measures on crime. This article raises a fundamental challenge to these tests. In the first section, it is argued that it is not possible to fully distinguish between the leading crime theories by focusing on the effect of their independent variables. This is because these theories share many of the same independent variables in common. In the second section, it is argued that the leading crime theories are best distinguished in terms of their specification of crime motives. Such motives may be either positive or negative, and they explain why independent variables lead to crime. With certain exceptions, such motives have been neglected in empirical research. The nature of these motives is discussed, and suggestions for their measurement are offered.
Economics · Empirical research · Epistemology · Positive economics · Section (typography) · Set (abstract data type) · Test (biology) · Variable (mathematics) · Variables · Computer Science · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Psychology · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses
Morality and homicide among Young killers
Sports Fan Binge Drinking
Religion and Delinquency
Strain Theories and Crime
Offline Consequences of Online Victimization
Pathways Through Crime
How to Be Aggressive from Virtual to Reality? Revisiting the Violent Video Games Exposure-Aggression Association and the Mediating Mechanisms
Rural-to-Urban Migration, Strain, and Bullying Perpetration
Online Trolls
First Person Accounts and Sociological Explanations of Delinquency
Scientists' Perceptions of Organizational Justice and Self-Reported Misbehaviors
Peers and offender decision‐making
The Remarkable Persistence of a Flawed Theory
Crime and time
Religiosity and Church Attendance
Low Self-Control and Social Learning in Understanding Students' Intentions to Pirate Movies in the United States
Building on the Foundation of General Strain Theory
A General Strain Theory of Community Differences in Crime Rates
Parental Management and Self-Control
Strain, Social Support, and Retreatism Among African Americans
Theoretical Model with Reciprocal Effects of Youthful Crime and Drug Use
Testing Theoretical Models with Reciprocal Effects of Drug Use Among Boot Camp Participants Using a Developmental Perspective
A theoretical model of religiosity and drug use with reciprocal relationships
A Test of Three Competing Theoretical Models of Delinquency Using Structural Equation Modeling
Adolescent Deviant Behavior
A Test of a Model with Reciprocal Effects Between Religiosity and Various Forms of Delinquency Using 2-Stage Least Squares Regression
Recidivism among boot camp graduates
A study of recidivism of serious and persistent offenders among adolescents
Within-individual effects of strain on crime/drug use and conditioning effects of criminal coping propensity
Two preeminent theoretical models
Testing the deviance syndrome perspective among boot camp participants
Linking exposure to strain with anger
Early childhood temperament, maternal monitoring, reactive criminal thinking, and the origin(s) of low self-control
Religiosity and violence
Mediating the bullying victimization–delinquency relationship with anger and cognitive impulsivity
Stability and Change in Antisocial Behavior
Testing Social Learning Theory Using Reinforcement's Residue
Self-Control, Criminal Motivation and Deterrence
Theory Without Ideas
Strain, Personality Traits, and Delinquency
Short‐term Changes in Adult Arrest Rates Influence Later Short‐term Changes in Serious Male Delinquency Prevalence
Why Is Involvement in Unstructured Socializing Related to Adolescent Delinquency
Testing Control Theory and Differential Association
Exploring Paradigms of Crime Reduction
Sex and Self-Control Theory
Relational Problems with Peers, Gender, and Delinquency
Race and Gender Differences in Theories of Sexual Behavior among Rural Adolescents Residing in AFDC Families
The Effect of Abuse in Childhood and in Adolescence on Violence among Adolescents
Race and Psychological Distress
Violence, alcool, cannabis et dépression chez les adolescents français
Internet-Based Radicalization as Enculturation to Violent Deviant Subcultures
General Strain Theory, Religiosity, and Delinquency among Young Latino Americans
Can Low Self-Control Help With the Understanding of the Software Piracy Problem
The Role of Morality and Self-Control in Conditioning the Criminogenic Effect of Provocation. A Partial Test of Situational Action Theory
Towards A Theory of Why Kids Run Away
Developmental Trajectories of Maternal and Paternal Attachment and Delinquency in Adolescence
A Holistic Approach to Explaining Crime
A Test of Social Learning Theory and Self-Control on Cyber Offending
Réussite scolaire et inconduites adolescentes
Gender, Religiosity, and Reactions to Strain Among African Americans
Explaining Delinquency and Drug Use
Crime and the American dream
Understanding crime
Theoretical integration in the study of deviance and crime
Justifying Violence
Theoretical methods in criminology
Delinquency and opportunity
The Current State of Differential Association Theory
An Integrated Theoretical Perspective on Delinquent Behavior
A Longitudinal Test of Social Control Theory and Delinquency
Social Learning and Deviant Behavior
Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior
Group process and gang delinquency
Principles of Criminology
Social Change and Crime Rate Trends
The Psychology of Crime
Understanding and Controlling Crime
The Psychology of Criminal Conduct
Techniques of Neutralization
Neighborhoods and Crime
The Subculture of Violence
A Reconceptualization of General and Specific Deterrence
Delinquency and Drift
General Strain Theory and Delinquency
A General Theory of Crime
Testing the Core Empirical Implications of Gottfredson and Hirschi's General Theory of Crime
Culture Conflict and Crime
Self-control as a general theory of crime
Crime in the Making
Delinquency and Opportunity
Angry Aggression Among the “Truly Disadvantaged”
Determinism, Indeterminism, and Crime
Toward an Interactional Theory of Delinquency
Personal Capital and Social Control
Foundation for a General Strain Theory of Crime and Delinquency
Social Control and Social Learning Models of Delinquent Behavior a Synthesis
An Empirical Test of General Strain Theory
The Influence of Delinquent Peers
On the Initiation and Continuation of Delinquency
The Techniques of Neutralization and Violence
Biological Perspectives in Criminology
George Herbert Mead and Modern Behaviorism
A developmental perspective on antisocial behavior
Strain Theory Revisited
Social Theory and Social Structure
Behaviorism on Verstehen and Erklaren
Testing Control Theory and Differential Association
Techniques of Neutralization
Social Learning and Deviant Behavior
Race, Family Structure, and Delinquency
Individual Values, Peer Values, and Subcultural Delinquency
Social Change and Crime Rate Trends
Perceived Risk and Social Control
Theoretical Integration in the Study of Deviance and Crime
Leisure and Delinquency
Offense-Specific Models of the Differential Association Process
Social Learning Theory and Adolescent Cigarette Smoking
Moral Evaluations of Illegal Behaviors
The Commitment of Delinquents to Their Misdeeds
Sanctions, Peers, and Deviance
Causes and Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency
Community Structure and Crime
Merton's 'social structure and anomie
Adolescent marijuana use
| Unique citing works | 60 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 1996 - 2025 (30) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 57 |