Fucntionlist And New Right Explanations In Devaint Sucultures

Question 1

Talcott Parsons theory on socialisation?

Answer 1

• youth is a transitory phase important for social integration and for cultural heritage to be easily passed on from one generation to the next
• young people transition to full maturity and responsibility
• youth culture the allows young people to carve out an identity and personality and feel a sense of community

Question 2

Lower class culture by Miller
AO1
AO3

Answer 2

Miller, a functionalist, states that working class children dont care about what middle class children think of them but instead become delinquent as they want to express lower class values such as excitement and toughness and feel as sense of belonging

AO3

• supports the idea of anomie (+)
• the functionalist view point is too general and does not consider factors such as age, class, gender (-)
• functionalists argue that delinquent subcultures have a function in society whereas Marxists would argue that young people are forced to join a delinquent subculture as a result of the ruling upper class exploiting them

Question 3

New Right explanations by Murray
AO1
AO3

Answer 3

• deviant subcultures arise as young people have not been socialised with appropriate norms and values properly (they tend to be lazy and not hard working)
• the rise of single mothers has to led to an increase of young boys who dont have a father and turn to crime as an outlet of tension

AO3

• the New Right emphasises that the generosity of the welfare state increase delinquency and crime rates and less people would bother to work hard to get a job. However Sweden has a very generous welfare state system but the crime rate is very low (-)
• Willis’ research ‘learning to labour’ supports the idea of working class boys forming anti-school subcultures that become delinquent (+)