Week 9 - Subculture Theories Flashcards
What is the social heritage of subcultural theories?
- Dominance of middle-class values
- WWII aftermath
- Importance of education (Military, educational benefits they got)
- lack of attention to urban infrastructures
- Emergence of suburbs
- Civil Rights (access to education, veterans, women)
What is the intellectual heritage of subcultural theories?
Work of Sutherland (DA) and Merton (Anomie)
academic research on social class
Chicago school gang research
Kobrin combined urban communities of middle-class values (the Chicago area project - they found that in poor areas and found ties between political power and organized crime)
What is the concept of subculture?
- Smaller groups in society with consistent values and different lifeways
- Can refer to gang subculture or to lower-class subculture
What did Cohen believe about delinquents and recurring problems?
Have limited opportunities to meet middle-class standards and expectations
Feels set up to fail
Delinquent gang cultures result from “effective” interactions with similar problems
What is a middle-class measuring rod?
A set of standards that are difficult for the lower-class child to attain
For example: sharing & respecting others’ property
What are lower-class frustrations and reactions caused by?
Inability to meet middle-class standards:
Status frustration
Reaction formation
What is Status frustration?
The solution is to change the way status is obtained
What is reaction formation?
adoption to their own rules
election to join the three existing subcultures: the corner boy, the college boy or the delinquent boy
Who is the corner boy?
Not a chronic delinquent
engages in petty offences, such as truancy, gambling and recreational drug abuse.
becomes a stable member of the neighbourhood, gets a menial job, marries and remains in the community
Who is the college boy?
Embraces the cultural and social values
works hard to achieve it, often unsuccessfully because of social disadvantages
Who is the Delinquent Boy?
resists family, school and authority to control their behaviours
joins a gang because it is autonomous and independent
What is Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin’s theory?
Differential opportunity theory
How did Cloward and Ohlin collaborate?
They worked together on a project to prevent juvenile gang delinquency
What is the intellectual heritage of differential opportunity theory?
Anomie theory (adding structures illegitimate means)
Differential association theory (explains how neighbourhood values get into place)
What are Cloward’s illegitimate means?
Settings and values support illegal means
- Religious values encourage or discourage drinking
- Slum neighbourhood with gambling rackets
