The Formation of Subcultures
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A subdivision within the dominant culture
that has its own norms, beliefs and values
Tend to emerge when people in similar
circumstances find themselves isolated
from the mainstream and band together for
mutual support.
Delinquent subcultures emerge in response
to special problems that members of the
dominant culture do not face.
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Delinquent behavior is rooted in class
differentials between the lower-class and
middle-class.
Delinquent subcultures emerge in the poor
areas of large American cities
Lower-class children are evaluated by
middle-class teachers on the basis of a
middle-class measuring rod.
Lower-class children experience status
frustration, and strain.
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Working-Class
Sociolization
+
Middle-Class Values
of success
Lower-Class Failure
in the school system
(among many)
School dropout and
Association with delinquent
Peers
(among some)
Increased hostility and
Resentment toward
Middle-class standards
And symbols, thus reaction
formation
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Loss of self-esteem
and increased
Feelings of rejection
Improved self-image
In a gang context
And through negative
And malicious delinquent
behavior
Types of gangs
1.
Corner Boys
2.
College Boys
3.
Delinquent Boys
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Is the most common response to middleclass rejection - corner boys try to make the
best of a bad situation.
Most lower class boys become corner boys.
Not a chronic delinquent but a truant.
His main loyalty is to his peer group which
provides support.
They are well aware of their failure to achieve
the standards of the American Dream.
Eventually, they get menial jobs and live
conventional lifestyles.
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There are few “college boys” on the corner.
These boys continually embrace the cultural
and social values of middle-class.
Their chances for success are limited
because of they are ill-equipped
academically, socially, and linguistically.
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“Delinquent boys” band together to form a
subculture in which they can define status in
ways that to them seem attainable.
Reaction formation: a mechanism that
relieves anxiety through the process of
rejecting with abnormal intensity what one
wants but cannot obtain.
These boys turn the middle-class norms
upside down, thereby making conduct right
in their subculture precisely because it is
wrong by the norms of the larger culture.
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Begins with the assumption that conventional
means to success are not equally distributed
among the socioeconomic classes.
The lack of means causes frustration for
lower-class youths which leads to criminal
behavior learned and culturally transmitted.
The type of delinquent behavior they engage
in depends on the illegitimate opportunities
available to them.
Criminal Gangs
 In areas where conventional and illegitimate
values and behavior are integrated by a
close connection of illegitimate and
legitimate business, “criminal gangs”
emerge
 Older criminals serve as role models. Teach
youngsters the kinds of people to exploit
and the necessary criminal skills
 Teach the importance of loyal relationships
with criminal associates and the way to
make the right connections.
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Conflict Gangs
 Their goal is to gain a reputation for
toughness and destructive violence
 Examples include biker gangs
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Retreatist Gangs
 This type of gang is described as a double
failure given their lack of success in
legitimate and illegitimate activities
 Characterized as interested in alcohol and
drug abuse.
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Limited access to legitimate
means of achieving
desired economic success
Feelings of frustration
and deprivation,
leading to gang formation
Stable, integrated conventional
and criminal
systems=criminal, theft gang
Predominance of one of three
types of gangs, depending on the
Integration of conventional adult
and criminal adult value and
behavior systems in a neighborhood
Nonintegrated systems, absence
of criminal organization.
instability = conflict, violent gang
In either type of neighborhood,
double failure, residual
adolescence = retreatist
“gang” or retreatist response
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Subcultures that adhere to conduct norms
conducive to violence are referred to as
subcultures of violence
 Violence is not considered antisocial.
Members of this subculture feel no guilt
about their aggression.
 Critics argue that economic factors, not
cultural ones explained regional variation in
homicide rates.
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Study conducted by sociologist Elijah
Anderson (1999) wrote work titled “Code of
the Streets” among young African
Americans.
He argued that violence arises from despair
and alienation in which they live.
They often adopt a certain “look” involving
they way they dress, move, and talk.
At the heart of the code is the issue of
“respect”.
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Display nerve by initiating physical and
verbal attacks, even at the risk of their life.
Distrust of the police and courts also helps
explain urban violence.
Young urban males feel they can not count
on the legal system for help and deem it
necessary to use violence to defend
themselves, their families and friends.
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To Miller, juvenile delinquency is not rooted
in the rejection of middle-class values; it
stems from lower-class culture, which has
its own value system.
Gang norms are simply the adolescent
expression of the lower-class culture in
which the boys have grown up.
The value system, not the gang norms,
generates delinquent acts.
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Trouble – prestige and respect
Toughness – masculinity, denial of
sentimentality and display of physical
strength.
Smartness – outsmarting, outwitting
Excitement – risks, danger and thrills
Fate (luck) – lucky break
Autonomy – being independent of authority
figures such as the police, teachers and
parents.
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Between 50 and 70% of gang members have
access to weapons.
From 1989 to 1997 nearly 20,000 juveniles
were murdered in the United States.
More than half of juvenile homicide victims
are killed by a firearm.
Juveniles killed by a firearm increased 44%
from 1988 to 1997.
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Studies show that girls, like boys, join
gangs for mutual support, protection, and a
sense of belonging.
Between 10 to 25 percent of gangs
members nationwide are female – higher in
major cities.
Many of the female gangs are affiliates of
male gangs offering support for the young
men or their “homeboys”
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Delinquent Gangs
Hate Gangs
Satanic Gangs
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