Strain & Subcultural Theories

?
View mindmap
  • Strain & Subcultural Theories
    • Subcultural Theories
      • Stanley Cohen
        • Status Frustration
          • working class feel they are denied status in mainstream society
            • react by developing delinquent subcultures
              • gives working class youth an opportunity to achieve status among peers
        • Evaluation of Cohen
          • Strength is that is explains working class delinquency as a group response, rather than focusing on individuals
          • Weakness is Cohen assumes working class youth develop delinquent values as a reaction to what they can't achieve
          • Matza's study found most young delinquents weren't committed to delinquent values
            • Matza
              • 3 problems with blaming social structure
                • seek to predict delinquency, not all wc are delinquent
                • make deviants seem different species than everyone
                • ignores free will as if social forces determine behaviour
              • delinquent behaviour often driven by subterranean values
              • however Matza ignores Hispanic gangs which are actively criminal and permanent
      • Cloward & Ohlin
        • Criminal
          • Emerge in areas with established pattern of adult crime
        • Conflict
          • Develop in areas, adolescents have little opportunity, gang violence results
        • Retreatist
          • Some lower class adolescents form subcultures around illegal drug use, failed at success
        • Evaluation
          • haven't provided convincing explanation for every type delinquency
            • fail to recognise crossover between subcultures
          • Taylor, Walton & Young some subcultures aren't reacting to own failure, reject norms, values of mainstream society
      • 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
        • focal concerns
          • smartness
          • autonomy
          • trouble
          • excitement
          • toughness
          • fate
    • Strain Theories
      • Merton
        • there is a strain between
          • the cultural goals of a society
            • legitimate means to achieve these goals
        • ritualism
        • strain theory generates anomie and deviance
          • anomie is the loss of shared and guiding principles and norms
        • innovation
        • retreatism
        • conformity
        • rebellion
  • Deviance serves 3 functions
    • unites a group
    • clarifies rules
    • promotes social change
    • Strain Theories
      • Merton
        • there is a strain between
          • the cultural goals of a society
            • legitimate means to achieve these goals
        • ritualism
        • strain theory generates anomie and deviance
          • anomie is the loss of shared and guiding principles and norms
        • innovation
        • retreatism
        • conformity
        • rebellion

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Sociology resources:

See all Sociology resources »See all Crime and deviance resources »