Topic 14 - Age & Crime

• Katz & Lyng

  • Youth are drawn to crime as it is alluring and adrenaline fuelled
  • 'Edgework' in which youth engage in risk taking behaviour to challenge the rules of what is acceptable
  • Increasing control through CCTV and new legislation does not deter as youth see it as an even more thrilling challenge
• Miller

  • Working class boys commit more crime due to being socialised into 'focal concerns'
  • E.g. seeking excitement, proving they're tough, and wishing for independence
• Matza

  • Young men are more likely to experience drift theory
  • Sense of obligation to law becomes strained so they drift into crime
  • Use 'techniques of neutralisation' to justify their criminality, such as denying responsibility and harm to victims
• A.Cohen

  • Working class boys strove to emulate middle class values but were unable, which led to status frustration
  • Invert traditional values and commit non-utilitarian crime to gain status
• Cloward & Ohlin

  • Working class youths are tempted by illegitimate opportunity structures
  • Access to a 'career' that pays more than a legitimate job
  • E.g. drug gangs use young boys as 'runners' to deliver drugs
• Robinson

  • County lines - drug dealers in big cities use the young and vulnerable to move and sell drugs to rural areas
  • Youth can build their reputation and status
• 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
• Hall - Marxist

  • Hippies rejected consumerism by wearing bright colours, peace and flower symbols, and long hair.
  • Advocated for the protection of the environment and ending the Vietnam war
  • Took hallucinatory drugs and promoted free love to symbolise their rebellion against mainstream culture.