Marxists & Subculture

• Katz -PM


  Ludic metaphor- crime is like a strategic game

  Sexual metaphor- crime is like an orgasm

  Religious metaphor - destroying something sacred
• Hebdige (Neo-Marxist)


  • Working-class youth form politically motivated subcultures that should be read as a challenge to class inequality
  • Create 'imaginary solutions' - try to solve the problems of capitalism through creating distinctive styles, but don't actually solve them.
  • Alternative spectacular styles = way of resisting cultural hegemony
  • Short lived due to incorporation that commercialises the style into consumerism
• Bennett criticises Hebdige and the CCCS for assuming punk was an expression of working-class as most punks were actually middle-class art students.
• Hall (Neo-Marxist)


  • Moral panic about mugging in the 1970s
  • Newspaper titles implied that young black men were dangerous - led to mass labelling and a deviancy amplification spiral
  • Used to distract from the social unrest/problems of capitalism at the time - convinced the public that it was the immigrants fault, not the system's, and justified using force to suppress the groups who were challenging them.
  • No actual evidence of an increase in mugging!
• Moral Panic Definition

  An exaggerated outburst of public concern over morality and behaviour of a certain group in society.
• Sewell would criticise the idea of a moral panic, suggesting that young black men do commit more crime due to a culture of deviancy and hypermasculinity as a result of idealising rap stars.

  • Supported by Official Statistics - young black men are 3% of the population, but 12% of the prison population.
• Sewell would argue that moral panics are justified as young black men do commit more crime due to a culture of deviancy and hypermasculinity stemming from idealising rap stars.

  • Supported by Official Crime Statistics - young black males make up 3% of the population but 12% of the prison population.
• Scraton (Neo-Marxist) 


  • 'Cultures of resistance' which originates in anti-colonial struggles due to the worse socio-economic position of ethnic minorities.
  • Young ethnic crime is a political act that helps resolve the lack of dignity and discrimination in a racist society.
• Lea and Young (Left Realists)


  • The majority of crime is 'black on black' (intraracial)
  • Accuses Scraton of romanticising crime and ignoring the real harm done to victims
  • Instead, criminal subcultures is a response to economical, social, and political marginalisation, or feelings of relative deprivation.
• Gramsci 


  • Working-class youth are not yet ideologically controlled by the domination of the ruling class, so still have the capacity for free thought.
• Willis - Marxist 


  • Working-class boys valued 'having a laff' over academic success and felt superior to their teachers.
  • 'Semi-class-conscious' as they were aware life isn't meritocratic and the capitalist system was set against them.
  • Might have trapped them further in the system as their misbehaviour led them into low paid, exploitative jobs.