Subcultural strain theories Flashcards
What is Albert Cohen’s status frustration?
Crime is a largely working class phenomenon. Focuses on group responses to strain through subcultures. Agrees with Merton that there is a strain between goals and means and attempts to explain crimes which have no economic motive and crimes committed by groups.
Status frustration - w/c are frustrated at their position in society - w/c boys in particular face anomie in a m/c school environment - they feel they cannot succeed in mainstream education and feel frustrated y this low status they are given. As a result they’ll join a deviant subculture with other w/c boys.
Alternative status heirarchy - They invert the school values and turn them upside down - they gain status from doing this e.g truanting instead of going to class, vandalising etc. They create an illegitimate opportunity structure - win status from your peers for deviant actions this is because they have failed in the illegitimate opportunity structure e.g gaining status by getting good grades.
What is the key evaluation of Cohen’s theory
Strengths:
This theory can help to explain crimes that are non-utilitarian i.e not for the financial gain
The idea of status frustration can account for crimes such as vandalism with no profit
Weakness:
Assumes that w.c boys start off sharing m/c success goals then reject these when they fail
Does not explain corporate or white collar crime
Fails to explain personal motivation or individual motivation e.g murder or rape.
What is Cloward and Ohlin’s three subcultures?
Crime is again a largely w/c phenomenon.
Agrees with Cohen - w/c are denied legitimate opportunities BUT not everyone in this situation reacts int he same way. Different subcultures respond in different ways - C and O attempt to explain this through 3 types of subcultures; criminal subculture, conflict subculture and retreatist subculture
Criminal - They arise only in neighbourhood with a longstanding and stable criminal culture with an established hierarchy of professional adult crime. This allows the young to associate with adult criminals, who can select those with the right aptitudes and abilities and provide them with raining and role models as well as opportunities for employment on the criminal career ladder.
Conflict - In areas with high population turnover so no stability. Therefore, gangs from on a lose basis which serves to reduce their frustration and gain status
Retreatist - Double failure - failed both legal and criminal subcultures to succeed so they become dropouts, e.g drug addicts.
What is they key evaluation of Cloward and Ohlin’s theory
Strength:
Offer an explanations for why w/c people deviuate in different ways according to the subculture they are in
Weakness:
The categories or boundaries between subcultures are too sharp e.g drug user who also seeks drugs could be retreatist and criminal
Matza argues people are not that committed to their subculture so this cannot explain crime and deviance
Ignores other motivations for crime e.g biological factors, revenge, poverty and poor socialisation.
What was Messner + Rosenfield’s institutional anomie theory?
-Supports Merton’s theory arguing modern society is obsessed with the values of the ‘American Dream’.
-Similar to Merton - focuses on American Dream - more recent strain theory. High rates of crime are inevitable in countries that are capitalist and obsessed with material wealth.
-They adopt a ‘winner takes it all’/’dog eat dog’ mentality and an ‘anything goes’ mindset so norms and values are irrelevant and individuals don’t care about hurting others.
-People forget basic values like respect for others and without adequate welfare provision they then turn to crime
What are the criticisms of subcultural theories from an Interactionist approach
- Miller argues the w/c has its own independent subculture and so aren’t frustrated by failure to achieve their goals through either legitimate or illegitimate opportunities. He argues that w.c men have their own goals called ‘focal concerns’
- Matza argues most people aren’t strongly connected to their subculture and drift in and out of delinquency. Therefore, being part of a subculture cannot cause crime according to Matza. He takes an interactionist approach stating that individuals attempt to ‘neutralise’ or water down their criminal of deviant behaviour; they do not brag about it as being part of their subculture.
What is Matza’s technique of neutralisation?
This is A03 of C + O
- Denial of injury - Where the victim was not really hurt or harmed by the crime according to the offender - ‘It was just a laugh’
- Denial of victim - The offender claims that in this particular case the victim is in the wrong - ‘He hit me first’
- Appeal to higher loyalties - Where the rules of the law had to be ignored because more important issues were at stake - ‘I was just defending my mates’
- Denial of responsibility - The offender denies it was their fault -‘I was really drunk’
- Condemnation of the condemners - Where the offender feels a sense of unfairness of being picked on - ‘Everybody was doing it - I don’t know why they picked on me’
What is Miller’s ‘focal concerns’
This is A03 of C + Oc x
