Gang and Subcultural theories Flashcards
Albert Cohen (1955)
american dream
> Cohen’s study begins by agreeing with Merton that young, working-class boys share the primary goal of success- to achieve the American Dream.
> As cultural deprivation begins, boys realise that the opportunity is closed to them.
> Negative labelling in schools adds to this problem, resulting in status frustration and a situation where working-class boys reject mainstream goals, replacing them with alternative ones.
> This is the beginning of a delinquent subculture and gang-related crime, of which the USA has a big problem.
> Cohen challenged Merton when assuming that crime is financially motivated. Instead, crime is a means of gaining a much-desired status that is achieved by the recognition that non-utilitarian crime provides for gang members.
> Status and respect become the main goal for teenage boys, resulting in more crime taking place.
EVALUATION:
> Critics argue that not all people in working-class backgrounds experience status frustration, therefore showing that Cohen’s research is unclear.
> Cohen’s study focuses on how boys try to gain a positive status/recognition. However, critics argue that plenty of crimes such as rape and the murder of a child, bring little status to the criminal. However, Cohen does state that it is based on gang-related crime and never claimed that his research could be looked at more broadly.
Cloward and Ohlin (1960s)
Like Cohen, Cloward and Ohlin also challenge Merton’s strain theory. They argued that while Merton explained deviant behaviour as a response to legitimate opportunity structure, he didn’t look at the ways in which people may innovate in order to bypass the usual, law-abiding means of achieving success.
The criminal Gang/ subculture:
> This forms in areas where there is high crime. Young men are able to learn the ‘tricks of the trade’ from older criminals, who they see as role models.
> This provides a successful illegitimate opportunity structure to criminal success and explains how gans are able to financially profit from their offences.
The conflict Gang/ subculture:
> This forms in the transition zone of cities, where the absence of social structures means that largely organised criminal gangs are largely absent.
> Instead, groups of young people hand around just to create pointless acts of violence.
The Retreatists gang:
> This forms when young people don’t have it in them to be successful criminals, nor violent ones. Instead, these people merely get drunk, take drugs and ‘hang about’ bored.
EVALUATION:
> Critics say their research is based on old-style gangs of the past. The nature of gang structure has drastically changed over the years.
Walter Miller (1962)
Delinquency as a consequence of normal working-class values
Miller provides a challenge to Merton, Cohen and Cloward and Ohlin. They all assume that those who commit deviant/criminal acts begin by sharing the main values of society.
Miller disagreed, he claimed that a lower-class subculture exists, with crime and delinquency an extension of normal, working-class values.
Working-class boys often value:
Toughness- demonstrating physical authority over others
Trouble- seeking out conflict and opportunities to assert oneself
Excitement- searching for thrils, exhilaration, e.g. joy riding
Fatalism- living for the here and now, not worrying about the future.
EVALUATION:
> One major problem with Millers’ work is that the values he examined are not just working-class values. They can be found throughout society and among many people.
David Matza (1964)
Delinquency and Drift
He claims that subcultural theories are wrong to assume delinquents are different from everybody else and hold their own values.
The majority of people in society have law-abiding values, and also the potential to possess and demonstrate deviant, subterranean values. However, delinquents publically express their subterranean values at inappropriate times. This draws attention to them, creating the impression that subcultural values are held.
EVALUATION:
> Matza overlooks how some criminals do live a permanent life of crime, some people do not ‘drift’ in and out of crime, and members sign up for it for life.
Densley and stevens (2017)
Gang Talk
Densley and Stevens interviewed 69 self-described gang members.
Social class, ethnicity, poverty and deprivation are factors where gangs exist, and who joins them.
> Gang members felt that blocked opportunities to secure high-paid, high-status jobs discouraged them from following the law, whereas gang membership was a means to providing access to a ‘good life’.
EVALUATION:
> The research is only drawn from a small sample of people, therefore it may be inaccurate or incomplete.
> There may be a cause of the Hawthorne effect/ interviewer effect, therefore potentially exaggerating their views.
> Are the people being interviewed reflecting true gang life?
