Despite countless promises to “clean up crime” in Phoenix, the city remains one of the most violent cities in the nation. Empirical findings state that the city of Phoenix’s crime rate is 1.5 times higher than the national average, which places Phoenix higher than 93.8% of U.S. cities. In addition, in the last 5 years, Phoenix has seen an increase in violent crimes. Economic strain compounds these issues, with 13.6% of Phoenix residents living below the poverty line, overtaking the state average of 12.4%. Housing affordability is a growing concern for residents, as one in four renters in Phoenix spend more than half their income on housing, leaving sparse resources for health care, education or transportation. 

This pressure accumulation is what Strain Theory describes, developed by Robert Merton and Robert Agnew. It suggests that structural and societal pressure can lead people to commit crimes and deviant behaviors when they feel they cannot achieve socially valued goals through legitimate means. Therefore, “strain” manifests in responses to this blockage.

Law and policymakers need to investigate what drives individuals to commit crimes and base new urban crime policies on explanations from theoretical perspectives with profound validity. Often, past policies focused on controlling crime rather than preventing it. If our society wants public safety to endure, we must acknowledge the societal and structural pressures that push people into crime and deviancy and start at the origin.

A criminological framework will help to develop practical solutions for new urban crime policies by implementing the Strain Theory rationale. This theoretical approach argues that crime is a product not of moral failure, but of opportunities blocked from oneself. Simply put, individuals have increased chances of committing crimes when pressured by circumstances that prevent them from achieving culturally accepted goals (career advancement, financial stability, personal relationships, education) through legitimate means. These are traditional, legal, and culturally recognized methods for success.

These conditions in Phoenix illustrate what Strain Theory predicts: serious gaps in housing, increased violent crime, poverty rates, etc. To put strain into perspective, if someone lives in a neighborhood lacking job opportunities, schools are understaffed and underfunded, and there is a concentrated police presence in the area, strain may be apparent. Under this pressure, turning to crime can feel like the only option, not out of choice, but of necessity. 

Survival in response to these pressures requires adaptation. Merton identified five ways people adapt to social strain: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. For example, innovation may drive someone to utilize illegal means to achieve culturally valued goals like money or status. These examples are daily realities in many urban communities, especially in Phoenix.

However, most urban crime policies overlook this theoretical explanation. New urban crime policies must address why crime is occurring in the first place. New policies must aim to reduce the daily strain individuals face. This requires investing in policies that increase legitimate opportunities, such as investing in quality public education, creating apprenticeship and vocational training programs, offering scholarships and financial aid, accessible mental health care, expanding social welfare programs, access to after-school child care, policies to increase minimum wage, enforcing fair housing laws, etc. Programs that focus on community-based violence intervention, mentorship initiatives and restorative justice have been empirically proven to be successful in providing real alternatives that steer individuals away from criminal behavior and toward prosocial alternatives.

Strain Theory should be vital in urban policymakers’ ideas about crime. Strain Theory provides solutions and explanations that are sustainable, benevolent and rooted in reality. The cycle will only repeat itself if urban crime policy does not address the structural and societal strains the people of Phoenix face. Incorporating theoretical explanations and listening to communities most affected by strain can provide the foundation for cities where safety is not about something being enforced, but rather about something collectively shared and understood.

Page Wood is an accelerated master’s student at Arizona State University’s Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions studying Criminology and Criminal Justice.