subcultural strain theories

• Albert Cohen: Status Frustration


  • w/c youths cannot achieve mainstream goals by legitimate means due to being culturally deprived
  • They experience strain as status frustration
  • Cohen disagrees that this is just an individual emotional response to strain
• Resolving status frustration


  1. Rejecting m/c values and joining a subculture of others in the same position

  2. this gives them an alternative status hierarchy where they can gain status through delinquent actions. mainstream values are inverted - what society praises e.g. respect is condemned by the subculture (vice versa) and this improves mertons stain theory as it explains non-utilitarian crime such as vandalism which has no economic value
• Marxists view


  Subcultures are a form of 'stepping outside' in response to inequality caused by oppression from the ruling class. subcultures have each other in their own ‘style’ which is their own individual response to the oppression they feel
• Delinquent subcultures are seen as a way for lower class members to gain status that they cannot legitimately achieve
• miller: Focal concern


  Subcultural theorists argue that deviant youths never actually share mainstream goals - instead have their own set of norms, values and goals known as focal concern which youths are socialised into having, including toughness, smartness and excitement. they gain status in their peer group e.g. fighting in school
• Cloward and Ohlin agree with Merton that working-class youths face blocked opportunities, but note that not everyone adapts to strain in the same way e.g. some subcultures adopt violence or drug use rather than utilitarian crime
• Conflict subcultures


  • Arise in areas of high population turnover that prevent the development of a stable criminal network
  • Illegitimate opportunities are found through loosely organised gangs, where violence provided a release for frustration and an alternative means of gaining status through winning 'turf wars'
• Criminal subcultures


  • Arise in neighbourhoods where there is an established criminal culture and an organised hierarchy of 'professional adult crime'
  • Provide youths with an apprenticeship in utilitarian crime
• Retreatist subcultures


  • Formed by those who fail in both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures- these ‘dropouts’ form a subculture based around illegal drug use
• subcultural strain theories both criticize and build on mertons strain theory : delinquent subcultures are seen as a way for lower class members to gain status that they cannot legitimately