| Agnew's General Strain Theory (GST) stipulates that delinquency is more likely to occur when individuals react angrily to strain. Given the pivotal role of anger in this theory, there have been surprisingly few empirical tests of GST that examine the role of anger. Mazerolle and Piquero (1998) found partial support for the mediating effect of anger on GST and suggest that more conclusive results may be possible with a sample exhibiting greater variation in strain. This paper builds on Mazerolle and Piquero's study and presents an empirical analysis of the mediating effects of anger on strain and delinquency using data from the School Culture, Climate and Violence study of Philadelphia middle schools. The paper also attempts to address sociocultural shortcomings in GST literature by including analysis of GST's ability to explain delinquency across different racial, socioeconomic and family composition groups. |
Updated 05/20/2006