According to the Ministry of Justice, in
April 2009 there were 2,126 15-17 year
olds and 9,497 18-20 year olds held in
custody in England and Wales. These are
down 12% and 1% respectively year-onyear.
According to the Prison Reform Trust,
over two-thirds are expected to reoffend within two years of release, with
over 40% returning to prison. With men,
the reconviction rate rises to 82%.
Poor attainment at
school, truancy and
school exclusion.
Drug or
alcohol
misuse and
mental
illness.
Bullying and
alienation.
Lack of discipline at
home and in school.
Troubled home
life: violence and/or bad
communication
between parents and
teenagers.
Peer
group
pressure.
No responsibilities
so focused on selfgratification.
Hyperactivity.
Reasons why young
people are more
likely to be involved
in criminal activity…
Deprivation such
as poor housing
or homelessness.
Money
problems.
Learning problems.
Potentially
dodgier lifestyle.
According to a 1998 MORI survey of 11-16 year olds,
reported in the Youth Justice Board’s ‘Annual Report’,
only seven out of 10 school children can say with
certainty that they have not offended in the past
year and a quarter (24%) admit to committing an
offence during that time.
However, only one in six of those who admitted
offending said their last offence had been detected
by the police. In its ‘Crime Reduction Strategy’, the
Government estimates that young people under 18
commit around seven million offences a year.
* Researchers from University of Glamorgan interviewed offenders in
prisons and young offenders’ institutions.
* They investigated a variety of violent offences, such as carjacking,
street robbery, snatch thefts and certain kinds of aggravated
burglaries, along with retaliatory, dispute-related, gang and disrespect
violence.
* In particular, they looked at the role played by factors such as street
culture.
* This study involved semi-structured interviews with 120 offenders (89
male and 31 female) serving sentences for violent offences in prisons
and young offenders’ institutions in England and Wales. The majority
were aged 26 or over and white, with 10 per cent defining themselves as
black, 12 per cent as mixed race, and just one as Asian.
• Mean number of previous arrests = 45, one-third arrested 50 times or
more. Previous convictions = 23, and more than a quarter said they had
been convicted of 30 or more offences.
• Overall, 92 per cent had used illegal drugs.
• About a quarter (23 per cent) said that they were members of gangs
or involved in them in some way.
• A further 11 per cent said they sometimes offended in groups, but did
not define them as gangs. In total, one-third said that they were
involved in gangs or criminal groups.
• More than a quarter (28 per cent) said that they had carried a firearm
of some sort, including air guns and replica guns. An additional 35 per
cent said that they carried some other weapon - usually a knife.
• Early analysis identified five main motives for street robbery: ‘good
times/partying’, ‘keeping up appearances/flash cash’, ‘buzz/excitement’,
‘anger/desire to fight’, and ‘informal justice/righting wrongs’.
• More detailed analysis revealed a range of individual and social
benefits, including status and respect within the peer group. This is part
of an emerging street culture in Britain that in some ways resembles its
American counterpart.
• Some offenders went out alone with the intention to rob an easy
target in order to buy drugs. Some robbed in groups or gangs for
excitement, while others stole from individuals who had wronged them
in some way, as a form of retaliation.
• Evidence collected so far suggests that being involved in street life and
certain forms of street culture is an important factor in understanding
violent street crime.
Task
• Answer the following questions
• 1. Why do you think the culture of these
offenders is of interest?
• 2. What norms and values were expressed
by the offenders when they were
interviewed?
• 3. Why do you think they re-offended?
• 4. List at least three strengths or
weaknesses of this research - GROVER
Sub-cultural theories of crime
Starter
• Read handouts and discuss answers with
a partner
Objectives
1. To be able to describe Walter B Miller’s
sub-cultural theory of crime
2. To be able to evaluate Walter B Miller’s
theory.
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.
KEY CONCEPTS: lower class subculture; focal
concerns; toughness; smartness; excitement; fate;
trouble; peer status.
In his theoretical study Miller observes 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.
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.
Walter B. Miller (1962)
Miller saw the lower
working-class
socialised into deviant
subcultural values he
called ‘focal concerns’
Trouble
Autonomy
Toughness
Focal
concerns
Fatalism
Excitement
Smartness
Crime and Deviance
Chapter 5: Functionalist
16
12/03/2016
What are the Focal Concerns of this working class subculture?
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. In practice this can result in assault, and battery as the group
attempt to maintain their ‘reputation’.
I’m a geezer.
Come and have a go.
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.
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.
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.
Trouble: young working class males accept their lives will involve
violence, and they will not run away from fights.
Miller notes that two factors tend to emphasise and exaggerate the
focal concerns of the lower class subculture.
1. Close conformity to group norms within a peer group
2. Desire for status within the peer group.
We walk the same,
dress the same and
live life the same...
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.
Your brain is a muscle –
Alphabet edit
•
•
•
•
•
•
A B
L T
M N
L L
Y Z
L R
C D
R R
O P
T T
E F G H I
T T L L R
Q R S T U
L R T RR
J
T
V
T
K L
T R
WX
L L
Choose a partner – One listens
and one describes Miller’s
theory.
How clear was the description?
Discuss!
Evaluations
• Is this study empirical or theoretical? Why
is this a problem?
• What would Feminists say about Miller’s
ideas?
• Do you think the ‘Focal concerns’ only
apply to lower-class?
• Is Miller saying that youth’s are frustrated
by their lack of success?
• Do you think that young offenders have
the same goals as the rest of us?
Critique of Walter B. Miller
Ignores
Females
Many middleclass also adopt
‘focal concerns’
And not all lower workingclass adopt ‘focal concerns’
Crime and Deviance
Chapter 5: Functionalist
26
12/03/2016
Re-cap
• How did Walter B Miller’s theory differ to
Merton’s Strain Theory?
• What was one criticism of Miller’s theory?
• What were the 6 focal concerns?
• Why is this called a sub-cultural theory?
Your brain is a muscle –
Alphabet edit
•
•
•
•
•
•
A B
L T
M N
L L
Y Z
L R
C D
R R
O P
T T
E F G H I
T T L L R
Q R S T U
L R T RR
J
T
V
T
K L
T R
WX
L L
Objectives
• To describe and evaluate Albert Cohen’s
sub-cultural theory of crime.
• To describe and evaluate Cloward and
Ohlin’s Sub-cultural theory of crime.
SCY6 Crime & Deviance: Structural/subcultural theories
He wrote
delinquent boys.
1955.
This is a structural theory because it argues that criminal
behaviour is the result of an individual’s place in the social
class structure.
KEY CONCEPT: non-utilitarian crime;
cultural deprivation; status frustration;
delinquent subculture.
SUMMARY OF STUDY:
He argues that delinquency is a collective rather than an individual
response to status frustration and their position in the class structure.
These guys give me
the only chance of
excitement and
status.
Cohen argues Merton doesn’t discuss non-utilitarian crime such as joy
riding and vandalism so he sets out to explain this type of crime.
Why do I like to just
ruin things for no
money?
According to Cohen, working-class boys reject mainstream culture.
Because of their cultural deprivation and ensuing educational failure,
they are denied access to these cultural goals.
Hated school, failed
everything, no job, can’t
live a normal life.
For me, crime pays.
Working class boys experience status frustration because they are stuck
at the bottom of the stratification system with most avenues to success
blocked.
I sit around all day wi’
nowt to do, no money
and no dignity. I’ve
nothing to loose.
They resolve their status frustration by rejecting the success goals of
mainstream culture and replacing them with an alternative set that they
can achieve within a delinquent subculture in which they can achieve
status & prestige. It’s a collective response to the problems of working
class teenagers.
We haven’t got a
chance in hell of
being invited to a
cocktail party...
So we get wasted in
the stairwell of our
council flat block,
instead.
“The delinquent subculture takes its norms from the larger culture but
turns them upside down”.
Teachers and the
papers want us to get
jobs, be polite, try
hard at school and be
nice to old ladies...
...so we’re going to do
exactly the opposite.
5 minutes !
• Can you describe the theory?
•
•
•
•
What criticisms can you think of ?
Feminists
Marxists
Interactionists
RESEARCH METHOD: this was a theoretical study.
WEAKNESSES:
•Box questions Cohen’s claim that delinquent boys reject
mainstream culture.
•Cohen ignores working class delinquent girls altogether.
•Matza backs up Box’s critique by arguing that not all
delinquents are strongly opposed to the values of mainstream
values, they tend to drift in and out of mainstream society’s
moral bind.
Your brain is a muscle –
Alphabet edit
•
•
•
•
•
•
A B
L T
M N
L L
Y Z
L R
C D
R R
O P
T T
E F G H I
T T L L R
Q R S T U
L R T RR
J
T
V
T
K L
T R
WX
L L
SCY6 Crime & Deviance: Structural/subcultural theories
CLOWARD AND OHLIN
(1960) They wrote
Delinquency & Opportunity, (1961).
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.
By examining access to, and opportunity for entry into, illegitimate
opportunity structures, they provide explanations for different forms of
deviance.
They begin by arguing that amongst working-classes there is limited or
no access to legitimate opportunities like education. So they turn to
illegitimate opportunities more easily.
We were all expelled
from school.
So we’ve no chance
of getting work.
We’ve got time and
no self-respect and
that’s why we get up
to no good.
Clo and Oh state that depending on the availability of illegitimate
opportunities, young people can enter into one of three deviant
subcultures:
Criminal subcultures are established and organized criminal networks
which provide a learning environment for young criminals from criminal
role models. They are largely concerned with utilitarian crime that
derives financial rewards.
Conflict subcultures develop in areas of limited access to either the
legitimate or the illegitimate opportunity structures.
There is little organized adult crime to provide an apprenticeship in
criminality.
Gang violence is a predominant response.
Retreatist subcultures have failed to succeed in both the legitimate and
illegitimate opportunity structures and are therefore double failures.
Their activities centre mainly around illegal drug abuse.
I’ve no qualifications,
no job and no future
in the normal world...
And we’re too soft
and stupid to be
gangsters. So we just
get wasted instead.
RESEARCH METHOD: this was a theoretical study that combined the
ideas of both Merton and Cohen.
WEAKNESSES: Burke identifies three main criticisms of their work:
1) the idea of the criminal subculture is based on gangs in Chicago in the
1920s and 30s so isn’t particularly applicable to modern British society;
2)Again the theory focuses on MALE deliquency.
3) the idea of retreatist subcultures is a ‘grossly simplistic’ explanation of
drug abuse which is actually really common among middle class people.
Plenary
• Describe Albert Cohen’s theory including
one criticism to a listening partner.
• Discuss the clarity of the explanation
• Swap round and now the other person
describes Cloward and Ohlin’s study
including a criticism.
• Discuss the clarity.
Key word check
• Illigitimate/legitimate opportunity
structure
• non-utilitarian crime
• status frustration
• conflict subcultures
• retreatist subcultures
SCY6 Crime & Deviance: Structural/subcultural theories
He wrote
underclass. 1989.
KEY CONCEPT: underclass; welfare dependency;
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 socio-economic 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.
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.
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.
The over-generous payments of the welfare state have made it possible
for young women to see single motherhood as a lifestyle choice and for
young men to cast away the idea that they should be a breadwinner.
Children are brought up in an underclass culture that deviates away
from the mainstream ideals of individual responsibility and morality. So
this is a cultural explanation of crime as people are brought up to hold
underclass and therefore deviant norms and values.
RESEARCH METHOD: this was a theoretical study.
WEAKNESSES: Not everyone on benefits is persistently welfare
dependent – most go out and find employment. What about white
collar crime? The underclass only make up a very small proportion of
the British population so it can’t be used as a general cultural
explanation of crime.
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;
This American sociologist has attacked some of the assumptions on
which sub-cultural and structural theories are based, and provided his
own explanation.
Matza claimed that delinquents are similar to everyone else in their
values and voice similar feelings of outrage about crime in general as
the majority of society.
Matza’s theory also brings in an element of the action approach, which
focuses on the way behaviour is adaptable and flexible and involves
dimensions of choice and free will.
Thus Matza is suggesting that male delinquents to be…
committed to the same values and norms as other members of society.
Society has a strong hold on them and prevents them from being
delinquent, most of the time.
He exemplifies this point by noting that
delinquents often express ‘regret’ and
‘remorse’ at what they have done.
And when in ‘training school’ shows
disapproval to crimes such as mugging,
armed robbery, fighting with weapons
and car crime.
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.
I’m BORED.
I feel like being
naughty today.
Subterranean Values
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 values of sexuality, greed and aggressiveness.
These are however, generally controlled, but we all hold them, and we
all do them.
Matza thus suggests that delinquents are simply more likely than most
of us to behave according to subterranean values in ‘inappropriate’
situations.
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.
1. Subculture
2. lower class subculture
3. focal concerns
4. peer status
5. non-utilitarian crime
6. cultural deprivation
7. status frustration
8. delinquent subculture
9. legitimate opportunity structure
10. illegitimate opportunity structure
11. criminal subcultures
12. conflict subcultures
13. retreatist subcultures
14. utilitarian crime
15. underclass
16. welfare dependency
17. edgework
18. paradox of inclusion
19. ASBO
What is meant by the concept
of subculture?
A social group that supports norms and values
that are different from mainstream culture,
usually because members of the group are nonachievers in mainstream society.
What type of crime does
subcultural theory focus on?
Juvenile delinquency.
What is the central goal which
people attempt to attain in
modern societies, according to
Albert Cohen?
Why are working class boys
more likely to fail at school,
according to Cohen?
Status – feelings of self-worth or
esteem, both in the eyes of others
and the individual.
Parents fail to equip them with the
necessary skills.
Why does Cohen blame
education as well as parents
for working class delinquency?
Schools deny working class children status by
placing them in bottom streams/sets and
labelling them as failures.
What concept does Cohen
suggest to explain the disaffection
of working class boys?
Status frustration.
How do they compensate for
the disaffection they feel?
They form anti-school subcultures and
award status to each other on the basis
of anti-school and delinquent activities.
What alternative sociological
term can be used for
delinquent subcultures that
reverse social norms and
values?
Counter cultures.
How might you use Paul Willis’s
study of working class lads to
criticise Cohen’s ideas?
The lads chose to fail and engage in delinquent
activities because they saw qualifications as
irrelevant to their futures, rather than because
they had experienced status frustration.
What criticism might be made
of the way that Cohen views
working class parenting?
His view suggests that all working
class parents are inadequate.
What role do working class
girls play in Cohen’s analysis?
He ignores working class girls
altogether.
How might the concept of drift
be used to criticise subcultural
theory?
Young people often drift between
conformity and deviance.
How does Walter B Miller view
lower class culture?
It is ‘naturally’ deviant, in that it subscribes to
values and norms that are likely to lead to
confrontation with mainstream middle class
society.
Why do lower-class youths
engage in crime, according to
Miller?
To compensate for the boredom of
the working class experience of
school and work.
Give three examples of the
focal concerns that lead to
juvenile delinquency, according
to Miller’s theory.
Toughness and aggression; looking for
excitement; being streetwise; being very
masculine; autonomy; fatalism etc.
What does Matza mean when
he criticises subcultural theory
for over-predicting
delinquency?
It implies that all working class youth
is involved in delinquency, but in
reality, only a small minority is.
What are subterranean values
and who has them?
Values such as the need for
excitement or to be outrageous and
most people subscribe to this.
Why is labelling theory critical
of subcultural theory?
Powerless groups, such as working class and
ethnic minorities are more likely to be
stereotyped as criminal or deviant for behaviour
that most groups engage in.
What is meant by the paradox
of inclusion?
Black youths are excluded from society, but overcompensate by identifying themselves with
consumer culture through buying high-status
material goods and logos.
Why do Postmodernists reject
subcultural theory for being
too rational?
There are no rational reasons, such as status
frustration or rejection, for delinquency –
delinquency is an irrational behaviour.
What do postmodernists mean
when they say that crime is
‘seductive’?
Young males quite simply get
involved in delinquency because it’s
thrilling.
What does Lyng mean when he
describes delinquency as
‘edgework’?
Delinquency involves danger and
taking risks – going to the edge of
acceptable behaviour.
Why might feminists be critical
of subcultural theories of
delinquency?
Subcultural theory generally ignores
female delinquency.