intro to subcultural theories

Question 1

Goals definition

Answer 1

key parts of strain and subcultural theories, it’s the idea of mainstream success goals

Question 2

legitimate/illegitimate means defintion

Answer 2

also called opportunity structures. these are ways that individuals or groups try to achieve main stream goals

legitimate means = gaining a qualification

Illegitimate means = refers primarily to crime

Question 3

The subcultural theory

Answer 3

• explains crime and deviance in terms of delinquent subcultures - groups whose values strongly deviate, or even oppose, the values of mainstream society
• similar to merton, subcultural theorists argue, not everyone can achieve the goals of mainstream society using legitimate means. they also focus on crime as a lower class phenomenon
• In contrast to merton, subcultural theorists focus on group responses to the strain and they look at non-utilitarian crime