Cohen Status Frustration

Question 1

Overview

Answer 1

Albert Cohen (1955) modified Merton’s position & combined both structural & subcultural theories of deviance. Cohen agrees with Merton that deviance is largely a lower-class phenomenon. It results from the inability of those in the lower classes to achieve mainstream success goals by legitimate means such as educational achievement

Question 2

Cohen’s explanation of deviance

Answer 2

1. Merton sees deviance as an individual response to strain, ignoring the fact that much deviance is committed in or by groups, especially among the young.
2. Cohen was particularly interested in the fact that much offending behaviour is not economically motivated, but simply done for the thrill of the act. Merton focuses on utilitarian crime committed for material gain, such as theft or fraud. He largely ignores crimes such as assault & vandalism, which may have no economic motive.

Question 3

Focus

Answer 3

Cohen focuses on deviance among working-class boys. He argues that they face anomie in the middle-class dominated school system. They suffer from cultural deprivation & lack the skills to achieve. Their inability to succeed in this middle-class world leaves them at the bottom of the official status hierarchy.

As a result of being unable to achieve status by legitimate means (education), the boys suffer status frustration due to the low status given to them by mainstream society. In Cohen’s view, they resolve their frustration by rejecting mainstream middle-class values & they turn instead to other boys in the same situation, forming or joining a delinquent subculture.

Question 4

Alternative status hierarchy

Answer 4

Cohen suggests the subculture’s values are characterised by spite, malice, hostility & contempt for those outside it. The delinquent subculture ‘inverts’ the values of mainstream society – it turns them upside down.

What society condemns, the subculture praises & vice versa. E.g. mainstream society values regular school attendance & respect for property, whereas members of a subculture would gain status from vandalising property & truanting.

For Cohen, the subculture’s function is to offer the boys an alternative status hierarchy in which they can actually achieve. Having failed in the legitimate opportunity structure, the boys create their own illegitimate opportunity structure in which they can win status from their peers through their delinquent actions.