Chapter 7: Cultural Deviance,
Strain, and Social Control
Theories

A. Introduction

1) A new explanation for crime began to focus on conditions that were in
place before the act occurred, giving rise to the positive school of
criminology

a. While biological and psychological theories blame delinquency on factors
inside of children, sociologists in the 20th century challenged this view by
asserting that criminality was caused by factors outside of the child

b. The 3 major schools of thought that will be covered:

i. Cultural deviance- blames delinquency on rapid social change which weakens
neighborhood controls on children (deviancy may be considered as such by the
larger society but is compatible with the behavior in the neighborhood)

ii. Strain theory- children are inherently good, but are victims of circumstance and
commit delinquency when under extreme pressure (pressure to commit deviant acts
arises from having internalized society’s goals and wanting to achieve them. Because
some people are unable to become successful by conforming to society’s rules, they
will turn to delinquency out of desperation)

iii. Social control theory- children are inherently amoral and will engage in acts of
delinquency unless prevented (Delinquency is expected behavior since children are
amoral, and therefore this inclination toward delinquent behavior must be
constrained)
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B. Theories of Cultural Deviance

1) Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay (Concentric Zone Theory)

a. Shaw and McKay came up with the notion that delinquency is the result
of the neighborhood in which a child lives

i. Their zonal hypothesis claims that rates of delinquency decline the farther one
moves from the center of the city

ii. To test this theory, they divided up Chicago into 5 concentric circles or zones

iii. They found that delinquency rates tended to be the highest in the first two
zones, while it declined significantly in each subsequent zone
b. The explanation for their findings was in terms of culture and
environment


i. Run down areas create social disorganization- (newly arrived immigrants were
not familiar with the cities geography or culture and immediately faced
overwhelming problems)

ii. Social disorganization fosters cultural conflicts- (In high delinquency areas,
the norms of a variety of different cultures existed side by side which led to
cultural conflicts)

iii. Cultural conflict allows delinquency to flourish- (Cultural transmission—in
which criminal values are passed from one generation to the next—had an
impact on children who were exposed to both conventional and criminal value
systems in areas of low socio-economic statuses and high delinquency rates)

iv. Allowed to flourish, delinquency becomes a full-time career – (Though initial
offenses may be trivial, acts of delinquents become increasingly severe and can
culminate in the formation gangs or other group efforts)
•
c. Critiques of Shaw and McKay’s Theory
i. Neighborhoods with high rates of delinquency may not be
disorganized, or may simply be organized differently than other neighborhoods



ii. Shaw and McKay’s theory is limited in scope, in that it only examines a particular
historical period in Chicago (early 20th century)

iii. Since Shaw and McKay didn’t explain non-delinquency in their study, there is a
possibility that neighborhoods do not pass on values and criminal traditions from one
generation to the next

iv. However, there is evidence of a strong correlation between “neighborhood
disadvantage” (the percentage of people living below the poverty line, unemployment
rates, proportion of single parent family households) and crime
2) Edwin Sutherland (Differential Association)

a. Devised the theory of differential association—a learning theory that
explains the process children go through to become delinquent—which
consists of nine key principles


i. Delinquent behavior is learned

ii. Such behavior is acquired through peer interaction via communication

iii. This communication takes place in intimate groups

iv. In these groups, children learn criminal techniques as well as how to rationalize
their crimes (i.e. I only stole the candy bar because the shop owner is a crook since
he/she charges such outrageous prices!)

v. The legal code is defined as being favorable or unfavorable and influences the
direction of motives and drives

vi. Delinquency is deemed to be acceptable since the child has internalized definitions
of the law that are favorable to engaging in deviant behavior

vii. Delinquency is affected by the frequency, duration, priority and intensity of these
learning experiences

viii. Learning this delinquent behavior is not unlike learning other forms of behavior

ix. All behaviors are an expression of the same needs and values
b. Children learn to define behavior by their associations and—ones that occur more
often, take place early in life and with people who the child respects—will have a
profound influence on the child’s behavior
•
c. Critiques of Sutherland’s Theory
i. It’s very difficult to test this theory since the number of favorable or
unfavorable definitions that are learned by the child with respect to the law,
can never be known

ii. This theory may be too simple since Sutherland only vaguely describes how
learning takes place



iii. Some argue that it has the ‘chicken or the egg syndrome’ (which comes first, delinquent
behavior or delinquent associates?)
3) Walter Miller (explains lower-class, male gang delinquency)

a. Argued that lower-class boys learn values that contradict those of main stream
society and develop sex role problems in response to:

i. Living in female-based households

ii. Internalizing values that set them apart from the upper classes of society
b. Miller explains that lower-class culture revolves around
the following six focal concerns or the values that monopolize
lower-class consciousness



i. Trouble (getting into or staying out of it)
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ii Toughness (machismo, characterized by a lack of sensitivity and a lack of
respect for women)
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iii. Smartness (referring to ‘street smarts’)

iv. Excitement (typically through risky behavior)

v. Fate (belief that someone is naturally lucky or unlucky—‘destiny’)
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vi. Autonomy- (“no one will push me around!”)
c. Children participate in delinquency to “live up” to the standards of their
neighborhood, regardless of what others think


i. The music of many rap artists reflects lower-class focal concerns.
Did the allegiance to a gangster lifestyle cost rap singers Tupac
Shakur (left) and the Notorious B.I.G. (right) their lives?
d. Critiques of Miller’s Theory

i. Research by John Braithwaite suggests that a majority of lower-class youth do not
necessarily subscribe to the values held by delinquents

ii. The correlation between fatherless juveniles (single mother households) and crime has
been heavily scrutinized
•
C. Strain Theories

1) Robert Merton


a. Delinquency is caused by conformity to conventional cultural
values

i. American society has cultural goals that are sought by all, but most children have limited
institutionalized means of reaching those goals

ii. Since many children are unable to achieve these cultural goals, they will be pressured to
deviate from the norms of society in an effort to attain them (though children will cope with
this pressure in different ways)
b. Adaptation through conformity is the most common way for children to deal with
this pressure, but some seek other ways

i. Innovators turn to illegitimate ways to reach their goals

ii. Ritualists accept institutionalized means but reject cultural goals
iii. Retreatists reject cultural & institutionalized means of
attaining their goals and become the ‘outcasts’ of society
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
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iv. Rebels want to change the existing system to reach their goals
(groups such as the ELF or the Weather Underground)
c. Critiques of Merton’s Theory

i. Merton doesn’t say what the relationship is between strain and
delinquency, nor does he identify which juveniles among those denied
legitimate means will engage in delinquent behavior

ii. He also exaggerates the homogeneity and solidarity of social classes

iii. Also, Merton does not inform us of why some children tend to
commit different crimes than others

iv. Margaret Farnworth and Michael Leiber are supporters of Merton’s
theory and state that ‘how the variable strain is operationalized’
determines what a study will yield
•
2) Albert Cohen (Status-Frustration Theory)
a. In his book “Delinquent Boys” Cohen argued that
delinquents were malicious, negativistic, non-utilitarian,
versatile, loyal and cannot defer gratification


b. The middle class measuring rod, or the standard teachers use
when they assign status to students, can have a profound impact
on how Americans judge children

c. Status frustration theory postulates that since children are
judged by their ability to follow middle class values in school, lower
status children become frustrated with their inability to fit in which
drives them to form a delinquent subculture (one that rejects middle
class values)
•


d. Albert Cohen blames delinquency on:

i. The frustration children experience because of their lower class status

ii. Their inability to live up to middle-class standards
e. Critiques of Cohen’s Theory

i. There is a lack of evidence supporting the idea that lower-class delinquents reject middleclass values

ii. In fact, Lee Rainwater argues that lower-class youth will attempt to live up to ‘middleclass’ values whenever possible
3) Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin

a. Designed a theory to explain delinquency in terms of “what children want, and
what they get”

i. Cloward & Ohlin argue that children join delinquent gangs because their legitimate path to
success is often blocked

ii. For instance, lower-class children who desire money are the most likely to join a gang
since they may believe that they have no other means of achieving financial success

iii. Blaming society for this inability to achieve such a success helps the delinquent to
rationalize their behavior to an extent
b. Cloward and Ohlin also identified 3 delinquent subcultures, (criminal,
conflict and retreatist subcultures)
•
i. The criminal subculture develops because there are successful adult
criminals who serve as role models, an integration of age levels, and cooperation
between offenders and legitimate people (lawyers, politicians, etc.)


ii. The conflict subculture develops largely as a result of social and cultural conflict in a
community. Since there is little help from legitimate people in this subculture, juveniles will
often resort to violence to vent their anger

iii. Children who cannot succeed in the criminal or conflict subcultures are often led to the
retreatist subculture, (they are considered to be a ‘double failure’)
•
c. According to Cloward and Ohlin, delinquency is caused by the
pressure to succeed and by the lack of legitimate opportunities

d. Critique
i. A capitalist economy requires a large number of people to fill the “boring,
empty, dead-end and low-paying jobs”

4) Robert Agnew
(General Strain Theory)

a. Agnew argued
that there are 3
sources of strain:

i. Failure to achieve
positively valued goals

ii. Denial of previously
attained achievements

iii. Exposure to negative
stimuli

b. The relationship between strain and delinquency is indirect,
not direct

i. How children react to strain is determined by other
“conditioning factors” such as their social-support system, selfesteem, etc.



ii. For example, some children will blame others for strain, while some will
accept responsibility for it
c. Critiques of Agnew’s Theory

i. Though his theory is relatively new, there has been a good deal of support for
it

ii. Research conducted by Lisa Broidy supports the theory and found that the
relationship among strain, emotion and crime varies by the cause of the strain

D) Social Control Theories

1) David Matza
a. Matza believes that the difference between delinquents and nondelinquents is severely exaggerated

i. Argues that delinquents are usually remorseful of their actions and that peer
pressure is the cause of most delinquency (i.e. fear of being called a ‘chicken’)


b. Since delinquents feel guilty for what they did, Matza feels that they tend to
absolve themselves of that guilt by turning to one of five techniques of neutralization:

i. Denial of responsibility

ii. Denial of injury
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iii. Denial of victim

iv. Condemnations of condemners

v. Appeal to higher loyalty
c. It is important to note that these techniques of neutralization are often in
place before an act of delinquency is even engaged in


d. Critiques
i. Some evidence supports the notion of the gradual decline of participation
in crime after the teenage years, known as the aging-out phenomenon



ii. However, researchers such as Michael Hindelang did not find support that
delinquents typically “went along” with their friend’s conceptualizations of
delinquency simply due to peer pressure
2) Travis Hirschi (Social Bonding Theory)

a. Hirschi postulates that juvenile delinquency is inevitable unless society “throws
obstacles” in the path of potential deviants

b. The social bonding theory argues that the bond, or the glue that holds a society
together, is the way to deter delinquent behavior. It has four key principles:

i. Attachment

ii. Commitment
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iii. Involvement

iv. Belief
c. Children with a strong bond to society are less likely to engage in acts of
delinquency since they will feel as if they have something to lose


d. Critiques
i. Several studies have found that juveniles with a strong attachment to
parents/guardians are less likely to be delinquent that those with a weak attachment



ii. Also, children who are involved in activities (commitment) are said to be less likely to
engage in acts of delinquency according to Eric Linden and James Hackler

iii. Marvin Krohn and James Massey have found that commitment is a better predictor of
delinquency than either attachment or belief

iv. Robert Agnew criticized this theory when he discovered through research that social
bonding variables only explain 1 or 2 percent of future delinquency
3) Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi (Self-Control & Delinquency)

a. Children commit crimes when an opportunity presents itself

i. According to this theory, delinquents cannot resist the urge to commit delinquency
because of the immediate gratification that accompanies it (low self-control)

ii. Children with low self-control are risk-takers, insensitive and impulsive

iii. Parent’s who punish their children and supervise them closely, (when they engage
in deviant behavior), will help these children to succeed later in life


b. Critiques (4 major criticisms)
i. Minimizes the importance of the role that biological factors play in
delinquency

ii. Lumps all children together and ignores the fact that differences among
children can alter the way in which they are parented


iii. Doesn’t account for female delinquency

iv. Ignores power differentials

E. Policy Applications

1) Cultural Deviance, Strain and Social Control Theory

a. The CAP program—the Chicago Area Project— is the most comprehensive policy
application of the Shaw, McKay and Miller theories (CAP began in 1932)

i. CAP advocates community involvement and direct services which can help to keep
children out of trouble

b. Sutherland’s theory of differential association has encouraged the establishment of
programs that de-isolate or re-integrate offenders into community life and share the
common goal of changing a child’s social environment

c. Project Head Start (initiated in 1965) is one example of the implementation of strain
theory
i. The idea behind this program is to ready under-privileged children for school
so that they don’t fail later on in life due to insufficient preparedness

ii. In recent years, this program has been heavily scrutinized in light of studies
that show that the initial improvements in children often disappear later in life


d. Social Control theory has been applied to community organizations such as the
Police Athletic League (PAL) which provides children with positive experiences with
other youths and law enforcement officers

i. Do these organizations serve to deter delinquent behavior?
-end of chapter 7 notes