Crime : Cloward and Ohlin AO3

• +explains the variety of crimes.
• +explains the pattern of young working class men.
• +makes a link between exclusion and the prison population.
• -ignores other factors; ethnicity and gender.
• -overly deterministic.
• +The most sophisticated version of structural and subcultural theory to date; it incorporates the good aspects of Cohen and Merton's theory.
• +It explains a variety of reasons as to why people are deviants.
• +Hobbs suggest that there really is a criminal opportunity structure out there for people to access if they so require.
• -Taylor, Walton and Young - it does not provide a convincing explanation for every type of deviant subculture.
• -Taylor, Merton, Cohen and Cloward and Ohlin are all still assuming that everyone in society strives for the same goals. What about individualism? People strive for different goals at different times e.g. a man/ woman may refuse a job with higher pay at some point in their lives because it would disrupt their family life.
• -Some groups actually make a conscience effort to reject society's mainstream goals without becoming criminals