Cohen

• Functionalist perspective
• Cohen argues that working class boys hold the same success goals as the wider society, but that as a consequence of educational failure and poor employment prospects, they have little or no opportunity to realise those goals.
• Cohen holds the view that cultural deprivation accounts for the working class boys' lack of educational success. They become stuck at the lowest level of the stratification system and as a consequence of their lack of opportunity, they suffer from status frustration.
• They turn to criminality as an alternative route to success, becoming members of a criminal subculture which values activities such as stealing, vandalism and truancy. Those who perform well, in terms of the values of the subculture (the successful thief for example), are rewarded by recognition and prestige in the eyes of their peers.
• Cohen's ideas have been criticised by, for example, those who hold the view that working class youths do not necessarily accept mainstream success goals, but rather that they exhibit delinquent behaviour out of resentment against those whose values they do not share e.g. teachers and successful middle class students.