"'Nobody Gives A Damn if You Don't Know the Rules': Poverty, Strain, and Crime" (by Chrystina Hoffman, Dana R. Dillard, Erin King, and Angela Blackburn): Review 1

Vote: Publish Pending Minor Changes

The authors did a great job explaining the theoretical concepts of general strain theory and thoroughly explained the process to conduct their study. By incorporating practical exercises and then collecting personal experiences from the students, the study was not only a great educational experience but representative of societal issues. The researchers have opened the door for future research to explore other ways to incorporate simulations, such as the Missouri Community Action Network Poverty Simulation, to continue bridging the gap between various educational disciplines that are often trying to understand or explain some of the same social problems in our society.

Minor Changes: The minor changes that I suggest is to re-check the abstract where it states “undergraduate and graduate students participated” in the first portion with the last sentence that has “undergraduate students” participated in the current study. The other suggestion is to check the pages that have bold letters in the first sentence at the top of the page that may not be necessary (3,5,17).

The research study was interesting and well-designed by the researchers. The research methods were explained and easy to understand which is often not the case in some research studies. I look forward to seeing more research in the future on general strain theory that may use simulations similar to the way the researchers did in the study.