SUBCULTURAL THEORIES

• What is a subculture?

  cultural group within a larger culture, often having beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger culture. Additional norms and values placed at high esteem
• What did Cohen say working class boys experience?

  status frustration

  they cant adjust to the low status their background offers them, reject middle class values and join up with similar boys in deviant gangs
• what causes status frustration according to Cohen?

  blocked opportunities so turn to non utilitarian crime
• what is non utilitarian crime?

  crime for crimes sake, no material gain
• what does status frustration cause?

  an alternative status hierarchy
• What did Cloward and Ohlin do?

  identified three subcultures that lead to deviance in working class boys
• What are the three subcultures according to Cloward and Ohlin?

  criminal subculture

  conflict subculture

  retreatist subculture
• What is Cloward and Ohlin’s study?

  Opportunity Structures
• What did Cloward and Ohlin say?

  working class youths are denied legitimate opportunities to money success, have multiple responses to this
• what is utilitarian crime?

  crime for material gain
• what is the criminal subculture?

  some areas have established criminal culture where young people can be taught by adult criminals. Usually utilitarian crimes. Mobs and Mafia (organised crime)
• What is the conflict subculture?

  areas which don’t have established criminal culture so young people organise themselves into gangs. non utilitarian crimes
• what is the retreatist subculture?

  young people who have failed in both legitimate opportunity structure and illegitimate opportunity structure retreat from society, turn to drink and drugs
• What did Messner and Rosenfeld say?

  Institutional Anomie Theory

  Obsession with money success pressures people towards crime, encouraging anomie cultural environment where people do anything in pursuit of wealth. Non capitalist values are undermined because of vast value on economic goals

  (evaluation)
• What did Messner and Rosenfeld say about crime in societies?

  in societies with strong capitalism and poor welfare, crime is high but in societies that spend more on adequate welfare, crime is lower
• What did Matza say?

  delinquency and drift

  we all share same delinquent values but most of us are able to keep them suppressed. people are able to drift between conformist and deviant behaviour.

  proof for subterranean values comes from people neutralising their deviant acts
• examples of neutralising deviant acts?

  denial of responsibility

  denial of victim

  appeal to higher loyalties
• What did miller say?

  focal concerns of the working class male

  crime isn’t a subcultural response but a replacement of culture. extension of social life for some communities. There is a distinctive lower class counter culture that is passed on from generation to generation. provides a way of living and satisfaction outside of work. roots lie within lower working class communities, not a specific response to strain
• what did the lower class counter culture arise from?

  low skilled labour, boring and repetitive dead end jobs, unemployment
• what are the focal concerns of the working class male?

  trouple

  toughness

  fate

  either lucky or you aren’t

  you’re on your own