Subcultural strain theory Flashcards
What are subcultural strain theories assumptions?
-these perspective see deviance as a product of a delinquent subculture
-Have different values from those in mainstream society
-Provides an alternative opportunity structure for those who are denied the chance to legitimately achieve e.g mainly working class
-Subcultures provide a function for their members and a solution to their problems
-These theories, criticise Merton’s theory and build on it
COHEN
-agrees with Merton that deviance is largely a lower class phenomenon due to being unable to achieve by legitimate means e.g educational achievement
-focuses on working class, boys who face anomie in the middle-class dominated school system as they suffer from cultural deprivation and lack the skills to achieve
-This leads to status frustration
-Argue certain groups in society experience more frustration over the lack of status than others e.g. w/c youth (due to a lack of opportunities)
-These groups develop their own set of values e.g. SPITE, MALICE, HOSTILITY and have contempt for those outside it
-This is largely due to the want of revenge on society
-Status is gained in groups through deviant behaviour e.g. Joy riding, vandalising, fighting, truancy, and substance abuse.
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What does Cohen criticise Merton for?
(a) deviance is not always an individual response to strain as most crime and deviance is committed in groups, especially amongst the young
(b) Merton ignores other crimes that are not utilitarian like violence and vandalism
Evaluation of Cohen
(: offers an alternative explanation to non-utilitarian deviance. Value inversion, status frustration and alternative status hierarchy explain non-economic delinquency.
): assume working-class boys start off, sharing the same, middle-class, success goals
): too deterministic, as it ignores, middle-class boys, who show deviance and working in class, boys who do not commit acts of deviance
CLOWARD AND OHIN
-suggest Cohen is over-generalising
-argue that, although the working class are likely to form deviant subcultures, different working-class groups will react differently, according to their particular social circumstances
-There are three types of subcultures: criminal, conflict and retreatist
Criminal subcultures
provides youth with an apprenticeships in utilitarian crime
-happens in neighbourhoods with long-standing and stable crime
Conflict subcultures
arise in areas of high population turnover, and therefore social disorganisation exists and prevent a stable professional criminal crime network
-loosely organised gangs, where violence provides a release
Retreatist subcultures
those that fail in both legitimate and illegitimate opportunity
-may turn to illegal drug use
Criticisms
): ignores the wider power structure, including who makes, and enforces the law- ignores crime of the wealthy
): MILLER- argues that working class have their own independent subcultures with focal concerns e.g. Masculinity being tough, immediate gratification excitement, and thrills earning, so they do not value success in the first place.
-Their values opposed to general value, consensus of society, so more likely to turn to deviance
-MATZA- argues deviants are no different to ‘ normal people’ who respect value consensus within society
- Suggest, sometimes people will drift out of societies’ value consensus, but will ultimately drift back in, so they must agree with the value consensus deep down
-Eventually, they will re-enter the value consensus and reinforce social solidarity
): SOUTH: distinguishes too hard between different subcultures as drug trade is a mixture of both ‘disorganised’ crime like the conflict subculture and professional ‘mafia’ style criminal, some retreatists also professional dealers
techniques of neutralisation- why people feel guilty and try to take the blame of themselves if they are so different to normal people- must share common values with wide society e.g mother’s birthday present
Recent strain theories
-argued that young people may pursue a variety of goals, other than money success e.g. Popularity with peers, autonomy from adults, or the desire for some young males to be treated like ‘real men’
-agree that failure to achieve these goals may result in delinquency, but also argue that middle-class juveniles too may have problems achieving such goals, which provides an explanation for middle class delinquency
Institutional anomie theory- MESSNER AND ROSENFELD
-focuses on the American dream
-Argue that it’s obsession with money-success and its ‘winner-takes-it-all’ mentality, exert pressures towards crime by encouraging an anomic cultural environment in which people are encouraged to adopt an ‘anything-goes’ mentality in pursuit of wealth
-In America (and UK) , economic goals are valid above all and this undermines other institutions e.g. Schools become geared to preparing pupils for the labour market at the expense of inculcating values e.g. respect for others
-Concluded that in societies based on free-market capitalism and lacking adequate welfare provision e.g. USA, high crime rates are inevitable
Downes and Hansen
-in a survey of crime rates and welfare spending in 18 countries, they found that societies that spent more on welfare had lower rates of imprisonment
-Back up Messner and Rosenfeld’s claim that societies that protect the poor from worst excesses of the free market have less crime
Savelsberg
-apply strain theory to the post communist societies in eastern Europe, which saw a rapid rise in crime after the fall of communism in 1989
-he attributes this rise to collective values being replaced by new western capitalist goals of individual ‘money success’
The Chicago school
-cultural transmission theory (SHAW AND MCKAY)- noted how some neighbourhoods develop a criminal tradition/culture that is transmitted from generation to generation while other neighbourhoods remain relatively crime free over the same period of time
-Differential association theory (SUTHERLAND) - argued deviance was behaviour learned through social interactions with other who are deviant -> they learn both criminal values and skills
-Social disorganisation theory (PARK AND BURGESS)- argued that deviance is the product of social disorganisation e.g. Rapid population, turnover and migration creates instability, disrupting, family and community structures. As they cannot exercise social control, it leads to deviance.
