Cohen- subcultures

• Cohen

  • Functionalist
  • Working class boys hold the same success goals as society
  • However, educational failure and poor employment means they have little opportunity to achieve these goals
• Cultural Deprivation

  • Lack on knowledge, experiences and values
  • Cultural deprivation accounts for the lack of educational success of working class boys
  • They become stuck in the lowest level of the stratification system
  • Their lack of opportunity leads to status frustration
• Status frustration

  • When a person is unhappy with their position in society because of cultural deprivation which leads to educational failure
  • They turn to crime as an alternative route to success
  • They become members of a criminal subculture
  • They become rewarded by recognition and prestige in the eyes of their peers
• Delinquency

  • He argued that individuals who carry out delinquent acts such as vandalism or violence never do it on their own
  • only in groups or gangs
  • juvenile delinquency only happens in groups- its a group phenomenon
  • Young males learn to become delinquents by becoming members of gangs where delinquent behaviour is the norm.
  • This tends to happen in urban neighbourhoods of large cities.
• Education

  • argued that schools are based on middle class values and expectations.
  • working-class boys cannot compete on the same terms as middle-class boys to get status and qualifications
  • leads to status frustration in trying but failing to meet middle-class expectations at school
  • they will disobey the school rules and hit back at the school system that has branded them as failures
• Criticisms

  • Cohen focuses on delinquent boys in gangs and he ignores girls
  • This means his study is not representative and can only be generalisable to working class boys
  • Cannot explain all crime like white collar crime
  • Cohen’s work shows a middle class bias.
  • He assumes that working class delinquents start out by accepting middle class values and aspirations such as educational success
  • Instead they don't accept society's goals and perform delinquent behaviours out of resentment against those whos values they dont share
• delinquent

  • a young person tending to commit crime, particularly minor crime