Subcultural strain theories

Question 1

Subcultural strain theories see deviance as the product of?

Answer 1

A delinquent subculture with different values from those of mainstream society

Question 2

What do subcultures provide?

Answer 2

An alternative opportunity structure for those who are denied the chance to achieve by legitimate means- mainly those in the w/c

Question 3

A.K. Cohen: Status fustration

What is deviance a result of acc to Cohen?

Answer 3

The inability of those in the lower class to achieve mainstream success goals by legitimate means such as educational success

Question 4

A.K. Cohen: Status fustration

Cohen criticises Merton’s explanation of deviance on what 2 grounds?

Answer 4

• Merton sees deviance as an individual response to strain, ignoring the fact that much deviance is committed in or by groups
• Merton focuses on utlitarian crime committed for material gain, such as theft and ignores crimes like assault and vandalism

Question 5

A.K. Cohen: Status fustration

What does he argue about w/c boys?

Answer 5

• they face anomie in the m/c dominated school system
• suffer from cultural deprivation
• inability to succeed leaves them at the bottom of the official status hierachy
• as a result of being unable to achieve status by legitimate means (education) the boys suffer from status fustration

Question 6

A.K. Cohen: Status fustration

Alternative status hierarchy?

Answer 6

• the delinquent subculture inverts the values of mainstream society, what society condemns, the subculture praises and vise versa
• for Cohen, the subculture’s function is that it offers the boys an alternative status hierachy in which they can achieve

Question 7

A.K. Cohen: Status fustration

Evaluation of Cohen’s theory

Answer 7

• it offers an explanation of non-utilitarian deviance, unlike Merton
• however, like Merton, Cohen assumes that wc boys start off sharing m/c success goals, only to reject these when they fail

Question 8

Clowarand Ohlin: three subcultures

They agree that wc youths are denied legitimate opportunites to?

Answer 8

• Achieve money success, and that their deviance stems from the way they respond to this situation
• They take Merton’s ideas as their starting point

Question 9

Clowarand Ohlin: three subcultures

What do they note about how people respond in this situation?

Answer 9

• Not everyone adapts to it by turning to ‘innovation’
• Different subcultures respond in different ways to the lack of legitimate opportunites

Question 10

Clowarand Ohlin: three subcultures

Acc to Cloward and Ohlin, whats the key reason why different subculture responses occur?

Answer 10

• Unequal access to the legitimate opportunity structure
• As well as unequal access to illegitimate opportunity structures

Question 11

Clowarand Ohlin: three subcultures

C&O argue that different neighbourhoods provide what?

Answer 11

Different illegitimate opportunities for young people to learn criminal skills and develop criminal careers

Question 12

Clowarand Ohlin: three subcultures

1 - Criminal subcultures?

Answer 12

• Provides youths with an apprentiship for a career in utilitarian crime
• Arise in neighbourhoods with longstanding and stable criminal culture with an established hierarchy of professional adult crime
• Adults provide training and role models for youths

Question 13

Clowarand Ohlin: three subcultures

2 - Conflict subcultures?

Answer 13

• Arise in areas of high population turnover, results in high levels of disorganisation and prevents a stable professional criminal network developing
• The only illegitimate opportunites available are within loosely orgainsed gangs
• In these, violence provides a release for young men’s fustration at their blocked opportunites

Question 14

Clowarand Ohlin: three subcultures

3 - Retreatist subcultures?

Answer 14

• ‘Double faliures’ - those who fail in both the legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structure
• Turn to drugs

Question 15

Clowarand Ohlin: three subcultures

Evaluation of Cloward and Ohlin?

Answer 15

• Ignore the crimes of the wealthy, their theory also over predicts the amount of w/c crime
• Agree with Cohen that delinquent subcultures are the source of much deviance, unlike Cohen they provide an explanation for different types of w/c deviance in terms of different subcultures.
• However they draw the boundaries too sharply between these e.g drug trade is a mixture of both ‘disorganised crime’, like the conflict subcultures, and professional ‘mafia’ style subcultures

Question 15

Clowarand Ohlin: three subcultures

Strain theories have been called reactive theories because they explain what?

Evaluation of Cloward and Ohlin?

Answer 15

• Subcultures as forming in reaction to the faliure to achieve mainstream goals, criticsed for assuming that everyone starts of sharing the same mainstream goals
• Miller (1962) - lower class has its own independent subculture seperate from the mainstream culture, with its own values. Deviance arises out of an atempt to achieve their own goals

Question 16

Recent strain theories

Recent strain theorists argue that young people may persue what?

Answer 16

• A variety of goals other than money success, e.g popularity with peers, autonomy from adults
• They argue that faliure to achieve these goals may result in delinquency

Question 17

Recent strain theories

Institutional anomie theory?

Answer 17

• Messner and Rosenfeld (2001)
• Focuses on the American dream
• They argue that its obsession with monwy success and its ‘winner-takes-all’ mentality, exert pressure towards crime by encouraging an anomic cultural environment in which people are encouraged to persue an ‘anything goes’ mentality
• In the US, economic goals are most valued, this undermines other institutions. e.g. schools become geared to preparing pupils for the labour market at the expense of teaching values such as respect for others