ABSTRACT
R. R. Kornhauser raises several criticisms against strain theories that concern the concepts and mechanisms they propose as the explanation of delinquency. These criticisms are based on her argument that strain theories use the term “culture” to refer to everything social. Kornhauser argues that empirical studies measuring the gap between aspirations and expectations have failed to demonstrate that there is any relationship between higher levels of strain and increased delinquency. These studies find that delinquency is associated with low expectations, as strain theories predict, but with low rather than high aspirations. The role of culture can be reduced or eliminated in Robert Merton’s theory if strain is defined in terms of the structural elements of inequality and mobility. In unequal, but generally mobile societies, those who occupy the lower-socioeconomic strata and who also lack upward mobility would be strained, regardless of whether success goals are assumed to be natural or culturally prescribed.
