ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by contrasting strain, control, and cultural deviance perspectives on delinquency. The strain theorist retains the assumption of moral consensus implicit in the earlier theorist's faith in his own judgment, but he rejects the view that the motivation to deviance is given in human nature. In general, the values, aspirations, and goals the strain theorist uses to produce pressure are related to delinquency in the direction opposite to that he predicts when realistic expectations are held constant. Theories stemming from the cultural deviance perspective are more difficult to test than strain theories. In the beginning, the chapter suggests that predictions stemming from cultural deviance and control theories would have to be considered one at a time, since at a general level they are much alike. The capacity of delinquents to behave civilly is to cultural deviance theory what social class is to strain theory.
