crime Flashcards
what are the 3 types of delinquent subculture ?
the criminal subculutre -
the conflict structure -
the retreatist subculture
what is criminal sc
the criminal subculutre - this type of subculture tends to develop in areas, where there is well estabilished pattern crime w/c
young men are presented with rolemodels from whom they can learn ffrom e.g blood and crisp - gang
become “succesful” by participating in crime
what is conflict sc
the conflict structure - tends to develop in areas where an illegitimate opportunity structure is absent
low level of social coercion prevents estabilished patterns of ault crime from developing respond to situation with gang violence gives opportunity to gain status and respect from gang memebers
what is retreatist sc ?
tends to emerge among those who have failed to suceed as member of criminal or conflict sc. these double failures sometimes form retrearist sc based on illegal drug use
what is the eval of this what do clowin and owen ignore ?
igmore the overlaps between the sc. e.g gang involved in the conflict sc deal with drugs and make money - some applies to retreast sc memebers succesfuly deal with drugs
- cloward and owin develop beoth merton theory and cphens sc theory shpws that wc delinquency is not simply concerned with material gain
what is cohens status frustration
delinquence crime in lic increasing areas
delinquency refrs to the criminal and anti social acts of young people
cohen agreeed with merton tjat the mainstream value of sucess crears problems for young wc males
they do bad at school and fail to acquire the skill and qualification needed for sucess
young wc when faile at school and defined as failures by the rest of socirty.= they develop status frustration
what do young w/c men deal with ?
deal with their status frustration by developing delinquent sc/ which turn mainstream value upside down
sucess in the delinquent sc through criminal and deviance behaviour gives young wc men respect in the eyes of peers
commiting non utillitarian crime - vandalism provides a way for young wc men to get respect from their peers
what is an evaluation of cohen sf ?
over predicts wc crime
take statistic at face value
ignores mc crime
ignores women crime
what is a summary of c = o opportunity structure ?
criminal sc- opportunity to climb professional criminal career ladder
conflict sc- status and respect through gang violence
retreast sc = those who failure legitamatelyt or illegitamately e.g the rubish gangster retreasits sc are those involved in drug use
what is miller focal concern ?
lower class sc is a response to their boring reptitve low skilled dead end jobs and pencils pf unemployment - non utilitarian
lw sc involves focal concern excotment , smartness, outwitting people, toughness, macho masculkintiy
crime is a result of younf wc men acting out their focal concern
what is an eval of miller focal concern ?
miller pics lc sc as a distinctive tradition many centutries old. l/c young men are seen to act out this sc, they live in a owrld of their own. l/c sc may exist its unlikely that lc young men are as insulated from the wider socirty
Func approach : subcuktural theory
What was cohen the delinquent subc
Cohen was the first sociologist to develop a subcultural theory of working class crime and deviance. He studied delinquent gangs in low-income, inner-city areas. Whilst his work is closely associated to that of Merton’s Strain Theory, in terms of agreeing that the mainstream value of success creates problems for young-working class males, he also develops Merton’s work by focusing on what he sees as two lapses in his theory:
1. Delinquency must be seen as a COLLECTIVE and not an individual problem. Gang members require an audience to gain respect and status amongst their peers
- It is important to also account for NON-UTILITARIAN CRIMES (crimes committed out of fun). Merton’s theory does not explain why someone would commit a crime that fails to produce monetary value. Cohen argues that crime on the whole is committed out of fun not out of necessity
What does subculture mean ?
A subculture is a group which shares some of the norms and values of mainstream culture, but which adapts and distorts those values in order to symbolise their rejection of mainstream norms and values. Groups develop oppositional subcultures as a response to the problem which they experience
What is status frustration ?
For Cohen the explanation lies within STATUS FRUSTRATION.
Working class boys find themselves denied of any kind of status by the education system.
They fail at school which leads to a dead end job and lower status housing.
Cohen the working classes become frustrated by the fact they cannot achieve any goals.
They therefore form delinquent subcultures and make up their own set of achievable goals.
Moreover Cohen believes that they not only make up their own goals but in fact take middle class values and turn them upside down. They replace these values with their own and set out to achieve these instead.
What is Hargreaves’s ( func perspective ) ?
HARGREAVES: THE FUNCTIONALIST PERSPECTIVE
Schools fail to integrate some students into mainstream society which resulted in the creation of subcultures. They do this in the following ways:
a) Firstly, the fact that they failed the 11+ exam and had to attend a Secondary Modern school immediately sets them apart from their middle class peers (who by and large attended grammar schools)
b) Their placement in the lowest streams within the school. Children with ‘behavioural problems’, low academic ability and so forth found themselves in a common position within the school - disliked by both those in authority and their conforming peers