STRAIN & SUBCULTURAL THEORIES OF CRIME

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  • Strain & Subcultural Theories
    • Subcultural Theories
      • Cloward & Ohlin
        • Conflict
          • develop in areas where adolescents have little opportunity gang violence results
        • Criminal
          • emerge in areas with established pattern of adult crime
        • Retreatist
          • some lower class adolescents form subcultures around illegal drug use failed at success
        • Evaluation
          • haven't provided convincing explanation for every type of delinquency
            • fail to recognise crossover between subcultures
          • Taylor, Walton & Young some subcultures aren't reacting to their own failure reject norms values of mainstream society
      • Stanley Cohen
        • Status Frustration
          • working class feel they are denied status in mainstream society
            • react by developing delinquent subcultures
              • gives working class youth opportunity to gain status among peers
        • Evaluation
          • Matza's study found most young delinquents weren't committed to delinquent values
            • Matza
              • 3 problems blaming social structure
                • seek to predict delinquent not all wc are delinquent
                • make deviant seem different species than everyone else
                • ignores free will as if social forces determine behaviour
              • delinquent behaviour often driven by subterranean values
                • techniques of neutralisation
                  • denial of victim
                  • denial of injury
                  • condemnation of condermners
                  • denial of responsibility
                  • appeal to higher loyalties
              • Evaluation
                • Matza ignores Hispanic gangs which are actively criminal and permanent
          • weakness is he assumes working class youth develop delinquent values as a reaction to what they can't achieve
          • strength is that explains working class delinquency as a group response rather than focusing on individual
      • Miller
        • wc create different value system as a response to monotony of wc jobs
          • wc subculture is mechanism of processes allowing wc to cope with their situation
    • Strain Theories
      • Merton
        • ritualism
        • innovation
        • retreatism
        • conformity
        • rebellion
        • strain theory generates anomie and deviance
          • anomie is the loss of shared and guiding principles and norms
        • there is a strain between
          • the cultural goals of a society
          • legitimate means to achieve them
      • Deviance serves 3 functions
        • unites a group
        • clarifies rules
        • promotes social change
      • Evaluation
        • Albert Cohen they suggest we should see deviance as collective response to structurally imposed problems
        • not everyone accepts the American Dream not all have same opportunity or want for wealth or success
        • treats deviant response as the action of individuals
          • fails to consider the communal aspects of deviant subculture
            • individually motivated doesn't account for non-utilitarian crimes
  • Durkheim
    • crime is an inevitable feature of society
    • Functionaism
    • potential threat to social order but still necessary in society
      • strengthens collective consensus
      • acts as a 'safety valve'
      • enables social change
      • acts as a warning device

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