Socialization & identity (Week 5)Deviance

Question 1

Subcultures

concept

Answer 1

• In all complex societies there is more than one value system.
• There is groups within that society who have different values to those in mainstream society called subcultures.

Question 2

Subcultures (Miller)

theory

Answer 2

Miller argues that subcultures are passed through generations and are born out of the experience of low-skilled, boring jobs, interspersed with periods of unemployment.
* The lower class subculture provides a way of dealing with this and finding satisfaction outside of work.
* Working class subcultures are very different from the wider culture.

Question 3

Miller - Focal concerns

theory

Answer 3

Miller identified 6 ‘Focal concerns’ of this working class subculture:
1. Trouble – willingness to accept that life involves conflict, and to get involved in fights.
2. Toughness - demonstrating ‘maleness’ through physical strength, drinking, etc
3. Smartness – status among peers involves dressing as well as possible.
4.Excitement – as work is repetitive, fun and enjoyment are highly valued.
5.Fate – believing that there is little that can be done to change or influence their lives.
6.Autonomy – dislike of authority.
* Miller thinks that these features of working-class subculture bring young working-class males into conflict with wider society.
* Their choice of leisure lead to involvement with gangs and conflict.
* Their behaviours are an example of non-conformity.
* But they are conforming to their subcultural values.

Question 4

Evaluation - Miller

theory

Answer 4

• Miller sees the lower-class subculture as ‘a distinctive tradition, many centuries old.’
• Lower-class men act with little reference to mainstream society.
• But is it likely that young men are completely insulated from wider society as Miller suggests? (Bordua, 1962)

Question 5

Under-Socialisation

concept

Answer 5

*Undersocialisation= socialisation has been partial or unsuccessful. *
* The family may fail to compleltely socialise a child through lack of care or abuse.
* The child may not internalise moral values of what is right and wrong.
* They may not be able to judge what behaviour is appropriate in different situations.

Question 6

Marginalisation

concept

Answer 6

Marginalisation: the pushing of an individual or group to the edge of a group or society, denying them an active voice and identity.
eg. In the UK, marginalisation has been applied to working class youths in inner city areas.
* These areas lack adequate resources and facilities.
* Schools are often less well funded and job opportunities are scarce.
* The concerns of young people have not been taken seriously by the authorities; they have no politicians to speak on their behalf
With high rates of unemployment, they feel that they have no future.
* May develop subcultures that express resistance or turn to forms of deviance/crime.

Question 7

Cultural Deprivation

concept

Answer 7

This is when children do not have the values and attitudes which are likely to bring success in society.
* They have been socialised into preferring immediate gratification as opposed to delaying gratification for some future rewards.
Eg, instead of continuing in education longer to get more qualifications and a better paid job, they leave school early to start earning straightaway.

Question 8

Resistance

concept

Answer 8

Resistance: the ways in which people combat and contest the dominant power in a society.
Neo-Marxists suggest that powerless groups have an awareness of their disadvantaged position which they are resentful of. They respond then by expressing their anger through deviant behaviour.
* Young people are free to resist the system(they don’t have financial commitments)
* Young people face problems they can temporarily resolve through rejecting the systems values through their choice of style, appearance and behaviour.

Question 9

Neo-Marxist views on subcultures

concept

Answer 9

• Neo-Marxists (Phil Cohen) think that subcultures who have a deviant style and behaviour are forms of resistance.
• Criticism: over-derterministic view that undervalues the meanings that people attach to their actions.

Question 10

Merton - Strain Theory

theory

Answer 10

• As a functionalist he recognised the importance of shared goals and values of society (USA - ‘American Dream’)
• He recognised that not everyone has the same opportunity to share these goals and values.
• He altered the term ‘Anomie’ to mean a society where there is a disjunction between goals and the means of achieving them.
• Merton’s theory is ‘structural’ he locates the cause of crime in American society - support for the “American Dream”.
• Being blocked from success leads to deviance as ‘innovators’ they adopt illegitimate means to achieve the goals they cannot achieve legitimately.

Question 11

Strain theory & the Anomic paradigm

theory

Answer 11

Resonses: Means: Goals:
Conformists + +
Innovators - +
Ritualists + -
Retreatists - -
Rebels +/- +/-

Question 12

Albert Cohen (1955)

Theory

Answer 12

• Developed a subcultural theory of working class crime and deviance.
• He looked a delinquent gangs in low-income, inner-city areas.
  Delinquency= criminal and anti-social acts of young people.

Question 13

Albert Cohhen theory

Status frustration

Answer 13

Many working-class men who don’t have the qualifications or skills they need to succeed experience frustration due to their low status and little respect.

Question 14

Albert Cohen

A subcultural solution

Answer 14

• Some work-class adolescents develop a deviant solution.
• They create their own subculture - their norms and values differ from mainstream society.
• Anti-social and criminal behaviour are valued by the delinquent subculture.

Question 15

Albert Cohen theory

Respect

Answer 15

• By succeeding in terms of the values of the delinquent subculture, they get respect and admiration from their peers.
• Gang members require an audience to gain respect. The ‘successful’ delinquent gains status in the eyes of his peers.

Question 16

Non-Utilitarian crime

Answer 16

Vandalism, joy-riding, fighting are examples of non-utilitarian crime and deviance. (Don’t bring monetary gain).

Question 17

Evaluation of Cohen’s subcultural theory

Answer 17

• His theory offers explanations of non-utilitarian crime and collective deviance which Merton’s theory fails to provide.
• But there are other explanations for working-class delinquency.

Question 18

Cloward & Ohlin (1961)

Answer 18

• Merton and Cohen fail to explain why delinquent subcultures take different forms.
  Eg, Why are some gangs just concerned with theft while others focus on violence.
• Different social environments provide different opportunities for crime and deviance > encouraging the development of different subcultures.
• Cloward and Ohlin identify three types of delinquent subculture.

Question 19

Cloward and Ohlin

The Criminal subculture

Answer 19

• Tends to develop in places where there is an established pattern of adult crime.
• Young men have role models who they learn bad acts from.
• They climb the professional criminal hierarchy to become ‘successful’ by committing crime for monetary gain.

Question 20

Cloward and Ohiln

Conflict subcultures

Answer 20

• Develops in areas where an illegitimate opportunity subculture is absent.
• These areas usually have a high turnover in population and a low level of social cohesion.
• This prevents established patterns of adult crime from developing.
• With little opportunity to succeed by legitimate or illegitimate means, young men become frustrated and angry.
• They often respond to this situation with gang violence which gives them the chance to gain status and respect from fellow gang members.

Question 21

Cloward and Ohiln

Retreatist Subcultures

Answer 21

Emerges among those who have failed to succeed by either legitimate means or as members of a criminal or conflict subculture. These ‘double failures’ form retreatist subcultures based on illegal drug taking.

Question 22

Evaluation - Cloward and Ohiln

Answer 22

• show that working-class delinquency is not simply concerned with material gain.
• They identify a number of delinquent subcultures.
• box off the subcultures and ignore the overlaps between them eg. gangs involved in the conflict subculture often deal in drugs and make large sums of money in the process.

Question 23

Hegemony - Influence or authority over others

Answer 23

• Term relates to the Marxist idea that the ruling class imposes it’s views on the rest of society.
  Ruling class ideology: the ruling class manipulate cultural values of society for their benefit.
• It is passed on through control of the media and through the values taught in schools.
• Young people are relatively free from commitments, have less allegiance to family>they are the weakest point in the structure of hegemony.

Question 24

Hegemony

Resistance through style

Answer 24

• Marxists see that Youth develop their culture to cope with their problems and the styles that they develop reflect the particular circumstances of their generation.
• They also show disdain for the dominant values of mainstream society in their clothing and forms of behaviour.
• Working class youth culture, often seen as a threat to society, is then actually a class struggle.
• Choices in style, i.e clothing, haircuts, music etc are important to Marxists as they consider them to denote hidden resistance to society.

Question 25

Subterranean values

Answer 25

• Matza says delinquents are the same as everybody else
• They just get caught.
• When they do get caught they express feelings of remorse and justify their actions.
• Matza says we hold two sets of values:
• conventional one which is respectable and includes positive roles such as the good father, son.
• underlying subterranean ones of sexuality, greed and aggression.
• Matza believes we all possess these values, but they are controlled most of the time.
• He believes that delinquents are more likely than most of us to give in to subterranean values in inappropriate situations.

Question 26

Subterranean values

Techniques of Neutralisation

Answer 26

Matza believes that delinquents are just as committed to the values of society as everyone else and find ways to justify their actions as exceptions to the general rule. These are;
Denial of responsibility - It wasn’t my fault, I was drunk at the time.
Denial of injury - It’s ok to steal from the rich, they can afford it.
Denial of victim - he deserved it, he was looking at me.
**Condemnation of condemners **- The accusers are no better than themselves,
Appeal to higher loyalties - They were giving my friend a hard time. I had to kill them.

Question 27

Subterranean culture - young peole and crimes

Answer 27

• Youths want to take control of their lives but often feel they are unable to do so.
• This period of DRIFT loosens the bonds that constrains behaviour and so are more susceptible to the ideas of deviant acts suggested by their peers.
• In an effort to show they have control over their lives youths may commit a deviant act.