Can you explain this diagram using
what we’ve looked at so far?
Situation
Response
Consequence
Strain
Subculture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUnWtmXnKE Functionalism, strain AND
subcultural theory rolled into one!
Crime
They wrote
Delinquency & Opportunity, (1961).
•Cloward and Ohlin (1960) said that Merton
had failed to appreciate that there was a
parallel opportunity structure to the legal one:
the illegitimate opportunity structure.
• In this illegitimate opportunity structure a
regular criminal career is available, with
recognised means of obtaining the society’s
goals.
KEY CONCEPT: legitimate opportunity structure;
illegitimate opportunity structure; criminal subcultures;
conflict subcultures; retreatist subcultures; utilitarian
crime; non-utilitarian crime.
SUMMARY OF STUDY:
They focused on how peoples’ opportunities to be deviant
are also different: not everyone gets the same chances to
be crooks; some have better opportunities to enter into a
criminal career, particularly if they have access to a
criminal subculture.
Can you take my son
under your wing? I
want him to know
everything there is
to know about
protection
racketeering.
CLOWARD AND OHLIN (1960)
Like Robert
Merton they
explain
working-class
crime in terms
of goals and
means.
Because of
‘blocked
opportunities’
they cannot get
on legitimately
But they disagree with
Merton that delinquents
share the same
values/goals as the rest of
society.
Cloward and Ohlin
see lower working-class
delinquents as sharing
their own deviant
subcultural values.
So they
develop an
illegitimate
career
structure
CLOWARD AND OHLIN
(CONTINUED)
Cloward and Ohlin identified 3 types
of delinquent subculture:
Criminal
Subculture
Conflict
Violent
Subculture
Retreatist
(drug)
Subculture
THREE POSSIBLE ADAPTATIONS
OR SUBCULTURES

Criminal – A strong local criminal subculture,
where young criminals can work their way up the
criminal ladder.
 Conflict – No local criminal subculture.
Instead, there are violent clashes between rival
gangs.
 Retreatist – A more individual response, in
which the individual has no opportunity to
engage in either of the other two subcultures
and retreat in to alcoholism.
CRITIQUE OF CLOWARD AND
OHLIN
Ignores the
wider power
structure
and those
who enforce
laws
Not everyone gets sucked
into
Illegitimate career
structure
Fails to consider
white-collar crime
this was a
theoretical study
that combined the
ideas of both
Merton and Cohen.
Women have
more blocked
opportunities
than men
The idea of retreatist subcultures is a simplistic explanation of drug
abuse which is actually really common among middle class people.
He wrote delinquent boys. 1955.
Miller does not see deviant behaviour occurring due
to the inability of the lower class groups to achieve
success. Instead, he explains crime in terms of the
existence of a distinctive lower class subculture –
it’s not a reaction to poverty; it’s a way of life.
He believes that this lower class group has for
centuries possessed their own culture and
traditions which are totally different from those
in the higher classes. This thus suggests that this
lower class culture has been passed on not by one
generation but for much longer than this.
KEY CONCEPT: lower class subculture; focal
concerns; toughness; smartness; excitement; fate;
trouble; peer status.
WALTER B. MILLER (1962)
Miller saw the
lower workingclass socialised
into deviant
subcultural
values he called
‘focal concerns’
Trouble
Autonomy
Toughness
Focal
concerns
Fatalism
Excitement
Smartness
11/03/2
016
What are the Focal Concerns
of this working class
subculture?
1. Toughness: this involves a concern for
masculinity and finds expression in courage
in the face of physical threat and a
rejection of timidity and weakness.
I’ll teach my kids to
fight, have a laugh
and be streetwise.
I’ve taught my lad to
duck and dive, laugh at
the police and drink
White Lightening in
parks.
2. Smartness: this involves the
‘capacity to outfox, outwit, dupe,
take others. Groups that use these
techniques, include the hustler,
conman, and the cardsharp, the
pimp and pickpocket and petty
thief.
3. Excitement: Involves the
search for ‘thrills’, for
emotional stimulus. In
practice it is sought in
gambling, sexual adventures
and booze, which can be
obtained by a traditional
night out on the town.
4. Fate: They believe that little can be done about their lives
– and what will be will be; they have no power to change
anything.
Life’s pretty crap, so
I’ve nothing to loose.
I’ll prob’ly be in
prison in a couple of
years.
There’s nowt to
do except play
with my own
dribble.
5. Trouble: young working class
males accept their lives will involve
violence, and they will not run away
from fights.
6. Autonomy- It’s important not to be pushed
around by others
Miller notes that two factors tend to emphasise and
exaggerate the focal concerns of the lower class
subculture.
1. A peer group that demands close conformity to group
norms
2. Youngsters in terms of the peer status and norms
achieve status.
It’s my mission to
make people scared
of me. It’s the only
way I’ll gain respect
seeing as I’ll never
get power or status
in a job.
We walk the same,
dress the same and
live life the same...
SCY6 Crime & Deviance: Structural/subcultural theories
He wrote
delinquency & drift.
KEY CONCEPT: juvenile delinquency; subterranean values;
techniques of neutralization; mood of humanism; mood of
fatalism;
He attacks some of the assumptions on which sub-cultural and
structural theories are based, and gives his own explanation claiming
that delinquents are similar to everyone else in their values and
voice similar feelings of outrage about crime in general as everyone
else
The first point that Matza made is that we all hold two levels of
values.
1. Conventional Values, roles such as father, occupation
2. Subterranean Values of sexuality, greed and aggressiveness. We
all hold and do them. Delinquents are simply more likely to act on them
Do we agree with Matza’s
theory so far? Has he got
a point?
Far from being deviant this group are...casually, intermittently,
and transiently immersed in a pattern of illegal activity to put it
into Matza’s words. They drift into deviant activities. In other
words, there is a lot of spontaneity and impulsiveness in deviant
actions.
Techniques of Neutralisation
If delinquents are as much committed to
conventional values as anyone else and,
furthermore, express condemnation of
crimes similar to the ones they themselves
commit, why do they commit them at all?
Matza suggests that delinquents justify
their own crimes as exceptions to the
rule. ‘Yes, what I did was wrong, but...’
They are thus able to convince themselves
that the law does not apply
to them on this particular occasion.
We’re not at school cos it’s
boring and it won’t do us any
good. We know it’s wrong and
that, but we don’t need to go.
Denial of responsibility for the deviant act – the delinquents may
remove responsibility from themselves by blaming their parents
or the area in which they live.
Denial of injury – resulting from the act – the delinquents may
argue that joy-riding does not harm anyone, it is just a bit of
mischief and that they were borrowing the car.
Denial of that the act was basically wrong – an assault on a
homosexual (‘Queer Bashing’ was ubiquitous in the 1980s) or
attack on an expensive shop seen as ‘rough justice’.
Condemnation of those who make the rules – the police may be
seen as corrupt or teachers as unjust hypocrits.
Appeal to higher loyalties - the delinquents may argue that they
broke the law not out of self interest but to help family or
friends.
Chill, the bloke got his
car back.
No harm done.
I smashed up the
phone box because my
mum’s giving me a
hard time.
He deserved a
slap, that’s what
happens when
you’re queer.
Mum didn’t get our
giro this week, so I got
us some beers in.
Didn’t actually pay for
‘em, mind.
The bizzies are
constantly picking on
me so of course I
chucked a brick at
their van.
SCY6 Crime & Deviance: Structural/subcultural theories
He wrote
underclass. 1989.
KEY CONCEPT: underclass; welfare dependency;
Think Jeremy
Kyle guests
He does not accept the idea that the underclass share the same morals
and values as the rest of mainstream society.
When we grow up, we
want good jobs and
nice houses.
When we grow up, we
want to go on the dole
and rob your houses.
SUMMARY OF STUDY:
Murray argues that crime is a cultural
phenomenon – among particular groups that
share deviant norms and values.
He focuses on the underclass; a group in
society that are at the bottom of the socioeconomic structure as they do not and cannot
participate in mainstream cultural activities
such as education and / or employment and
are instead, reliant upon the welfare state.
Murray sees the
underclass as responsible
for a high proportion of
crime and explains their
criminality in terms of
their rejection of
mainstream norms and
values.