Cloward & Ohlin Three Subcultures

Question 1

Overview

Answer 1

Like Cohen, Cloward & Ohlin (1960) also take Merton’s ideas as their starting point. They agree that working class youths are denied legitimate opportunities to achieve ‘money success’ & that their deviance stems from the way they respond to this situation.

However, Cloward & Ohlin go further than Cohen when they note that not everyone in this situation adapts to it by turning to ‘innovation’. Different subcultures respond in different ways to the lack of legitimate opportunities. E.g. one group might resort to violence, while another will centre on illegal drug use.

Question 2

Different subcultural responses

Answer 2

They attempt to explain why these different subcultural responses occur & usefully argue that the key reason is not only unequal access to the legitimate opportunity structure (as Merton & Cohen recognise), but also unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures.

E.g. not everyone who fails at school (legitimate) has an equal chance of becoming a successful burglar (illegitimate) – you still need to opportunity to learn how to do it well & practise. This makes Cloward & Ohlin stand out as a theory due to their recognition that just as not everyone can be successful in the workplace, not everyone can be a successful criminal either!

Question 3

Neighbourhoods

Answer 3

Cloward & Ohlin suggest that different neighbourhoods provide different illegitimate opportunities for young people to learn criminal skills & develop criminal careers. They identify 3 types of deviant subcultures:

Question 4

Deviant subcultures

Answer 4

Criminal subcultures provide youths with an apprenticeship for a career in utilitarian crime. Arise in neighbourhoods where there is a longstanding & stable local criminal culture with an established hierarchy of professional adult crime. This allows the young to associate with adult criminals, who can select those with the right abilities & provide them with training, role models to follow & opportunities to commit crime. These are well organised, hierarchical groups – e.g. the Italian-American Mafia

Conflict subcultures arise in areas of high population turnover such as the inner-city where people move in & out due to work & those that are able to tend to move into more suburban areas. Results in high levels of social disorganisation & prevents a stable professional criminal network developing. Violence provides a release for frustration & an alternative source of status by winning territory from rival gangs.

Retreatist subcultures – Not everyone who wants to be a professional criminal or a gang leader actually succeeds (just as not everyone gets a well-paid job in the legitimate opportunity structure). These ‘double failures’ may then turn to a retreatist subculture based on illegal drug use.