Sociology Crime and Deviance Subcultural Theorists

Agrees deviance is from lower classes' inability to achieve goals.

Criticises Merton (Strain theory)--> Merton sees deviance as an individual response to strain, ignoring group deviance and non-utilitarian crimes, e.g. assault, vandalism.

A.K. COHEN argue that working class boys face anomie in middle class education system--> culturally deprived--> lack the skills to achieve-->leading to status frustration.

To resolve the cultural deprivation, they reject mainstream middle class values and form subculture (innovation, retreatism, rebellion)

Argues that subcultures offer illegitimate opportunity structure for boys, which provides an alternative hierachy to win status delinquently.

Evaluation

• Offers explanation of non-utilitarian deviance
• Assumes w/c boys start of sharing m/c success goals, only to reject them when they fail, however, they could never have shared the girls in the first place, so werent reacting to failure.

Agree with Merton, w/c youths are denied legitimate opportunities to achieve.

However--> not everyone adapts to a lack of legitimate opportunities by innovating. Subcultures:

• CRIMINAL--> arise in neighbourhoods where the is stable criminal culture and hierachy of adult crime, provide opportunities for youth.
• CONFLICT--> prevent stable criminal network. Violence provides a release for frustration and alternative source of status earned by winning 'turf' from gangs (rivals)
• RETREATIST--> fail in legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structure to go to drugs.

EVALUATION-->

• ignores crimes of the wealthy
• It does explain different types of w/c deviance(subcultures)
• Draw boundaries too sharply between different types. Actual subcultures show characteristics of more than one 'type'.