cohen

• Excluded pupils and criminal behaviors

  Strong correlations exist
• Alternative ways for young working-class males to obtain status

  Through activities like boxing clubs and outward-bound courses
• Response to blocked opportunities

  Did not lead to individuals committing crime but rather to the formation of subcultures that rejected societal norms and values
• Youth may drift in and out of delinquency before conforming to social norms
• Young working-class males may seek alternative ways to obtain status through legitimate means
• Common criminal behaviors in subcultural groups

  • Criminal damage, graffiti, joyriding, anti-social behavior
• Cohen's concept of status frustration still holds relevance in contemporary society
• Underachievers in education and criminality

  More likely to fall into stereotypes of criminality
• Deviance in young males can be a response to a lack of control in teenage years
• Subcultural theories of crime and deviance

  • Fall under the broader banner of functionalist theories, particularly those inspired by Robert Merton's strain theory
  • Albert Cohen proposed a subcultural strain theory in 1955 in his work "Delinquent Boys" influenced by Merton's ideas
  • Society's structural inequalities impact the educational achievement of working-class males, leading to status frustration and the formation of subcultures that reject societal norms and values
  • Members of these subcultural groups achieve status through deviant activities, subverting the norms and values of society
• Cohen's explanation focuses on petty crimes and the formation of subcultural norms, but does not explore further criminal opportunities based on contacts and networks in specific locations