Subcultural Theory
Explains deviance in terms of the
subculture of a certain group.
Some groups of criminals or
delinquents might develop norms
which encourage and reward
criminal activity.
Form a delinquent subculture.
Albert Cohen
• Albert Cohen attempted to explain why
working-class youths commit criminal
and anti-social acts.
• He suggested that working-class
youths suffer from STATUS
FRUSTRATION.
Status Frustration
• Defined as failures by the wider society
working-class youths experience status
frustration.
• They cannot achieve the legitimate
goals.
• They replace them with an alternative
set of norms and values.
• The working-class youths try and
achieve status in other ways.
• They may join a gang whose goals can
be achieved.
• A collective rather than an individual
response.
• Crime may be non-utilitarian eg joyriding, vandalism, not directed to
monetary gain.
• The young man gain status in each
other’s eyes but also hit back at a
society which has denied them the
opportunity to succeed.
Evaluation
• Offers an explanation for non-utilitarian
crime and collective deviance.
Cloward and Ohlin
• Point out that not all lower class youths will
be able to achieve success through
legitimate means.
• Too many applicants results in selection.
• Delinquency arises out of a reaction to the
lack of opportunity to reach success goals
through legitimate channels and the
consequent adoption of illegitimate means to
achieve them.
Cloward and Ohlin – Opportunity
Structures
• Try to explain why delinquent
subcultures take different forms – why
some are mainly concerned with theft
while others focus on violence.
• Different social environments provide
different opportunities for crime and
deviance which in turn encourage the
development of different delinquent
subcultures.
Types of delinquent subcultures
– Criminal Subculture
• Tend to develop in areas where there is
a well-established pattern of adult
crime.
• There is an illegitimate opportunity
structure.
• Young men are provided with role
models.
Types of delinquent subcultures
– Conflict Subculture
• Tends to develop in areas where an
illegitimate opportunity structure is absent,
there is a high population turnover and a low
level of social cohesion.
• Little opportunity to succeed by either
legitimate or illegitimate means.
• Young men become frustrated and angry.
• Respond with gang violence which gives
them the opportunity to gain status from
other gang members.
Types of delinquent subcultures
– Retreatist Subculture
• Tends to emerge among those who
have failed to succeed either by
legitimate means or as members of
either criminal or conflict subcultures.
• ‘Double failures’
• Form retreatist subcultures based on
illegal drugs.
Evaluation
• Develops Merton’s and Cohen’s theories.
• Show that working-class delinquency is not
simply concerned with material gain.
• Give explanations for a number of different
subcultures.
• Tend to ignore overlaps between subcultures
eg gangs involved in conflict subcultures
often deal in drugs.
How Useful are Subcultural
Explanations
• British evidence suggests structured
gangs with a definite and enduring
membership are unusual.
• Most delinquent acts are committed by
small, transient loosely structured
friendship groups.
Matza and Sykes
• Delinquent subcultures imply workingclass youths are committed to gangs.
• They point out that most working-class
youths do not engage in criminal
activity regularly and those who do
give it up in early adulthood.
Matza and Sykes
• Most working-class youths do not
engage in criminal activity.
• Adolescents of all classes are members
of a leisure class.
• Leisure activities involve a search for
excitement and adventure to
demonstrate their masculinity.
Evaluation
• Subterranean values exist side by side with
other values but are only expressed in
certain situations eg football
• Young people attach greater importance on
subterranean values, they have more leisure
time.
• If they break the law there is added
excitement.
• They emphasise the similarity between
delinquents and young people in general.
Parker (1974) and Corrigan
(1981)
Portray working-class adolescent
delinquency as much less structured
and systematic.
Their studies showed that working-class
youths used delinquency to inject
some action into their leisure which
frequently involved hanging around
McRobbie and Garber
• Found girls’ teenage activities reflected
what was expected of them.
• Spent their time in appropriately
‘feminine’ persuits.
• Concerned with being attractive and
sexy and getting a boy.