Three subcultures - Functionalist Flashcards
Cloward and ohlin (1960)
- explain w/c crime in terms of goals achievement and suggest that delinquents do not share the same values/goals as the rest of society due to a blockage of opportunities that they cannot achieve - find a way to achieve these goals illegitmately
How do they differ from what merton says?
they say not everyone responds by turning to innovation and committing utilitarian crimes such as theft
- they suggest that different subcultures respond in different ways to the lack of legitimate opportunities to succeed - some subcultures turn to violence and vandalism while others turn to illegal drug use
- believe the reason is not only unequal access to the legitimate opportunity structure but unequal access to illegitimate opportunities also - argue different neighbourhoods provide different illegitimate opportunities for young people to learn criminal skills
What are the 3 subcultures that they claim develop?
criminal subculture
- some locations have long outstanding issues with high crime therefore providing the person with a carer
conflict subculture
-happens in areas of social disorganisation and high population turnover e.g different ethnic groups fighting for gang domination
retreatist
- people who fail at succeeding the norms and values of society but do not necessarily follow a criminal path but retreat into behaviour that is illegal or deviant
Evaluation of cloward and ohlin
- provides reason for crime that is not related to money and can explain why frustration leads to non material crimes
- not everyone shares the same goals of the middle class and the w/c may not have these goals to start of with so they do not see themselves as a failure
-ignores the role that the formal controls have in deterring subcultures from being deviant e.g community programs, youth groups
- cannot assume that people only belong to one subculture as they may shift in and out and can belong to more than one which can affect the levels of deviance
