Youth Participation In Deviant Subcultures Flashcards
What do functionalists believe causes youths participating in deviance?
Lack of educational opportunity or success
Who discusses ‘status frustration’?
Cohen
What does Cohen say about working class boys?
They are aware of mainstream values (success in school, a good job), and how you can gain status from this.
Though if a working class boy clings to this, he will recognise himself as inferior compared to middle class boys.
Why may ‘status frustration’ cause deviance?
Joining a delinquent subculture, which values aggression, can lead to status.
What does Cloward and Ohlin discuss?
‘Blocked opportunities’
Why, according to Cloward and Ohlin, may someone turn to illegitimate means to achieve?
They cannot achieve values of mainstream culture.
Not all have same educational opportunities
What three subcultures form depending on the illegitimate means available? (Cloward and Ohlin)
- Criminal: stable slum areas where there’s a hierarchy of criminal opportunity.
- Conflict: unstable disorganised area with high mobility. No access to organised criminal opportunity or hierarchy, so youths turn to violence and gangs to defend
- Retreatist: formed by youths who fail to achieve legitimately or illegitimately. They will retreat from societal values and descend to addiction or petty crime.
Why is Millet different to the other functionalists?
He believes working class boys don’t try to gain academic success as that’s a middle class value.
What does Miller call working class values?
‘Focal concerns’
being in trouble, macho, and they value freedom.
How may the functionalist view be criticised?
- generalise working class culture, ignoring the regional, ethic and individual variations.
- functionalists base their data on official police statistics, but other sociologists (interactionists) may challenge this by looking at labelling
What is the New Right explanation for youth deviance?
They have not received the appropriate socialisation into the value consensus. They have a different set of norms based on dependency, criminality and laziness
What is Murray’s New Right argument?
- The underclass can be seen as a deviant subculture.
- He believes the increase in single mothers raising young boys explains high rates of crime among males from deprived backgrounds.
- He believes this is a greater indicator of criminality than poverty.
- He believes girls may be emotionally damaged without a father, and will search for a substitute
What does Murray say about boys growing up without a father figure?
‘Grow up unsocialised’
‘Poor impulse control’
‘Sexual predators’
‘Unable to go to a job’
How may the New Right be criticised?
- They victim blame
- Ignore variety of reasons to why people are part of the underclass
- Not based on clear sociological evidence, and contradicts most other theories.
- Highly pessimistic. In reality, those in the underclass and the unemployed aspire for the same thing which is stability.
What do Neo-Marxists/Marxists see deviance in young males a response to?
Society’s control and a reaction to their identity being threatened
