Theories of Crime - Week 9 Flashcards
Subcultural Perspectives
What School and Theory?
Roots in Chicago school and Merton’s theory of anomie and strain
Albert Cohen and Status Frustration
- Modified Merton’s Theory of anomie to attempt to explain higher rates of delinquency among lower-class youth
- In lower-class delinquency occurs as a subcultural adaption to problems generated by the domination of middle class culture in society
- Dominant middle class culture of North America values things such as delayed gratification, self-control, ambition, academic and occupational success, good manners, and respect for property
Status Frustration Definition
Inability to complete effectively therefore are raced with constant failure to achieve middle-class status, lower class children experience frustration or strain and a loss of self-esteem
Reaction Formation and Delinquent Subculture
Consequence of status frustration is the formation of a subculture that incorporates a rival hierarchy of statuses and values through a process of reaction formulation
- Basically means that frustrated children react to what they see as the unfairness of their situation by redefining the acceptable goals to a level that they can reasonably complete for and attain
The process of reaction frustration is a collective process for adaption to strain or status frustration, unlike Merton’s theory which focuses on individual modes of adaptation
Cohen argues that process by which lower-class youth compete for status may involve malicious, negativistic, non-utilitarian, delinquent or criminal acts
Five Key Characteristics of Lower-Class Delinquent Gangs
(1) Non-Utilitarianism
Assume that when people steal things, they steal because they want or need them or when they engage in criminal actions it is to accomplish a purpose (revenge). However, Cohen noted that some gang stealing and other crime has no such purpose or motivation at all. “just for the hell of it”
Five Key Characteristics of Lower-Class Delinquent Gangs
(2) Maliciousness
Much gang activity is just plain mean it has no purpose other than to cause problems for people, to make them unhappy or uncomfortable or to hurt them. Goes along with non-Utilitarianism.
Five Key Characteristics of Lower-Class Delinquent Gangs
(3) Negativism
Delinquents have a set of values and live by rules that are not just different than those of “respectable” people - they are the negative polarity of middle-class norms
Five Key Characteristics of Lower-Class Delinquent Gangs
(4) Short-Run Hedonism
Pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. Argued that delinquents have little interest in long-run goals, in planning activities, budgeting time, or in activities involving knowledge and skills that are acquired only through practice and study; he argues that delinquents seek immediate gratification - impatient, impetuous and out for fun, with little consideration of the costs and gains that might be in the future
Five Key Characteristics of Lower-Class Delinquent Gangs
(5) Group Autonomy
Delinquent group members resist any kind of restraint on their behaviour, expect that imposed informally by fellow gang members. They defy or ignore authority exercised by parents, teachers and other agents of social control.
Status Frustration and Gender
Virtually all gang members ore male; at that time he felt that girls rarely engaged in delinquency and when they do, it is almost always in the form of sexual promiscuity.
Delinquent Subculture as Collective Adaption
Lower-class boys’ collective solution to the problem of status frustration: since they cannot acquire status by conforming to middle-class values, they reject these values. Replace them with new values- the delinquent subculture - against which they can be judged as successful, at least by their peers.
Delinquent Subculture as Collective Adaption
Delinquent adaption is passed down culturally. Bit of learning theory and differential association theory involved.
Categorizing Cohen
- Consensus theory
- Looking for structural/cultural explanation for deviant behaviours engaged in by individuals and groups.
- Bridging theory that engaged with both micro and macro-sociological concepts in the sense that it addressed the role of culture and class structure and how that affects individual experiences, creating strain or status frustration. It is both structural and a processual theory considering the impact of structural factors on individual behaviour and how individual engage differently with the circumstances in which they find themselves.
Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin - Differential Opportunity Theory
- Not everyone experiences such strain innovated because of differential opportunity.
- Individual must be in an environment conducive to learning deviance and, once trained, must have the opportunity to engage in deviation.
Differential Opportunity Structure and Delinquent Subcultures
Three Types of Lower-Class Neighbourhoods
Criminal Subculture
In relatively stable neighbourhoods, where most community members know each other, youth are socialized in to a criminal subculture that values material gain through illegitimate means. In this neighbourhood, adult criminal role models are plentiful and youth may become their apprentices. Through these intimate contacts, lower class boys learn techniques for committing crimes and are integrated into a network that includes corrupt police and politicians, and shady lawyers, willing and able to facilitate criminal activity.
