subcultural functionalists Flashcards
what is a subculture
a subculture is a group which shares some of the norms and values of mainstream cultures, but adapts and distorts those values in order to symbolize their rejection of mainstream norms and values. Groups develop oppositional subcultures as a response to the problems they experience
what do subcultural theorists seek to explain
subcultural theorists seek to explain deviance in terms of the group. They are less interested in why individuals respond to strain and focus much more on why there are patterns within groups and how they collectively respond to strain. They argue that certain groups form and develop their own sets of norms and values that are different from that of the rest of society. These theories seek to explain why it is that delinquency rates are higher amongst specific groups especially working class males. They argue that SC emerge in response to strain. young WC boys face what other members of society dont. They criticize and build on merton’s strain theory. They emphasize the role being part of a gang plays in helping young working-class youth deal with strain
key thinkers and studies
Cohen - status frustration - Explains why young WC males join gangs to deal with their lack of status
Cloward and Ohlin - Delinquency and Opportunity - explains why young WC boys join different types of gangs
Miller - focal concerns - explains that working class gangs are simply a reflection of working class culture
cohen and status frustration
Cohen agrees with Merton that deviance is largely a working-class phenomenon. It results from the inability of those in the lower classes to achieve mainstream goals by legitimate means. Cohen focuses on deviance among working-class boys. He argues that they face anomie in the middle-class-dominated school system. They suffer from cultural deprivation and lack of skills to achieve. Their inability to succeed in the middle class habitus leaves them at the bottom of the official status hierarchy in education. As a result of being unable to achieve status by legitimate means - education, they suffer status frustration which is the problem of adjustment to the low status they are given by mainstream society.
cohens view
In cohen’s view they resolve their frustration by rejecting mainstream MC values and they turn instead to other boys in the same situation forming or joining delinquent subcultures. The subculture inverts the values of mainstreams society, what society condemns the subculture praises and vice versa. For example, society upholds regular school attendance whereas laddish subcultures boys gain status from truanting. For cohen, the subcultures function to offer the boys an alternative status hierarchy, in which they can achieve, having failed in the legitimate opportunity, the boys create their own illegitimate opportuntiy where they can achieve the boys create their own.
evaluating Cohen
Cohen’s view is useful as it offers an explanation of non-utilitarian deviance. Unlike, merton whose concept of innovation only accounts for crime with a profit motive. It explains why young working class boys commit crime because they are part of the group suffering the most status frustration. However Like Merton he assumed that WC people have MC values first and then reject them. He ignores the possibility that they didnt share these goals in the first place and never saw themselves as failures
cloward and ohlin
Cloward and Ohlin adapted both Merton and Cohen theories on subculture and the response to strain/status frustration. They agree that the working class are more likely to deviate as they have less access to the legitimate means of reaching aspired goals. However, they argue that Cohens conclusions are too simple as different subcultures respond in different ways to the lack of legitimate opportunities, they argue that the key reason for different subcultural responses is not only unequal access to legitimate opportunity but unequal access to illegitimate opportunities.
three types of subcultures identified by cloward and ohlin
Criminal subcultures
Conflict Subcultures
Retreatist subcultures
explanations of subcultures identified by Cloward and Ohlin
They suggest that some members of the WC have easier access to become criminals than others, for example one area may have an active criminal subculture whereas another may not. Their study describes how diff neighbourhoods develop diff SC due to different illegitimate opportunities in their neighbourhood
criminal subcultures
If WC youths suffering from status frustration live in a neighbourhood dominated by criminal gangs they may be able to join it. These SCs provide youths with a career in utilitarian crime. They join this type of gang which arises in neighbourhoods with a longstanding and stable criminal culture with professional adult criminals, for example, in neighbourhoods with an organised mafia, joining such SC may offer a way to gain status and even wealth.
conflict subculture
These arise in areas of high population turnover, which results in high levels of social disorganization and prevents a stable professional criminal network from developing. Its absence means that the only illegitimate opportunities available are within loosely organized gangs. Not every neighborhood has a criminal gang network. An alternative way to express status frustration is to join a conflict subcultures which offers an opportunity to gain status and off load pent up frustration often by violence - mods and rockers
retreatist subcultures
The final type of gang is joined by those without access to the criminal network and who are not violent enough to make it in the conflict gang. The gang they join is retreatist and based around dealing with their status frustration through addictions to drugs and or alchohol
chicago school study
Cultural Transmission theory - some neighborhoods according to Shaw and Mckay develop a criminal tradition or culture that is transmitted from generation to generation while others remain crime free
Differential Association Theory - Sutherland was interested in the process by which people deviate. He argued that deviance was behaviour learned through social interaction with others who are deviant
Social Disorganisation Theory - Park and Burgess argued that deviance is the product of social disorganization. Changes such as rapid population turnover and migration create instability, disrupting family and communist structures. These become unable to exercise social control over individuals resulting in deviance
analysis of cloward and ohlin
Cloward and Ohlin unlike Cohen why people join different types of gangs because they are limited by where they live/their associations which controls what type of gangs they can join
evaluations of cohen and cloward and ohlin
Focus on WC crime - ignores MC crime
Matza argues that the extent to which young people join subcultures is greatly exaggerated. Matza argues that there is no real commitment to subcultures and most youths drift in and out of subcultures especially as they get older and the strain begins to cease, eg. Most young people do not fully commit to gang culture, they will be able to separate from the gangs quite frequently, drifting in and out rather than devoting their life to the gang
Marxists and Matza criticise functionalists for assuming that most crimes are working class. He claims that everyone possesses subterranean deviant values which can come at certain times in one’s life
Cloward and Ohlin assume that people join gangs as a reaction against being unable to meet the mainstream goals of society. However, Miller argues that most WC dont share MC goals and have their own subculture with its own values and goals - focal concerns - MIller does not see the deviant behavior 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
Matza criticises func for ignoring the role of power in defining crime
