New Right & Youth Subcultures

• New Right view is that youths in deviant subcultures have not received the correct socialisation to accept the value consensus that is held by the majority of society.
• They are seen to have different, deviant norms and values. 

• Charles Murray believes the ‘underclass’ do not want to work.
• He says they depend on the welfare system, seeing this as an acceptable lifestyle choice.
• The entire underclass could be seen as a deviant subculture in Murray’s analysis.
• However, it is particularly among youth through gangs and anti-school subcultures. 

• Murray condemns (judges) the increase in single mothers raising young boys with no father in their lives.
• He says that this can explain the high rates of crime among male youths from deprived social backgrounds.
• Murray argues that growing up in a single-parent family is damaging.
• It is a greater indicator of criminality than poverty is.

• Murray says girls without fathers may be emotionally damaged.
• Therefore, they will search for a father substitute, often getting pregnant at an early age themselves.
• He says boys who grow up without fathers ‘tend to grow up unsocialised.
• They tend to have:

1. Poor impulse control

2. Tend to be sexual predators

3. Are unable to get up in the morning and hold down a job

• Murray concludes that these trends will be disastrous for Britain.
• He says ‘over the last two decades, larger and larger numbers of British children have not been socialised to norms of self-control, consideration for others and the concept that actions have consequences’.
• He says people will become less tolerant of the underclass.
• This will lead to cutting of benefits and using the criminal justice system more harshly. 

• Victim blaming: Murray blames people for their own poverty, when actually it is not an individual’s choice to live off state benefits. It could be down to long-term illness, an unequal society or lack of jobs.

• Not all people from the ‘underclass’ have a lazy work ethic. Many want to go out and work hard and gain a job, but the opportunities are just not there for them.

• Not all people who live in poverty turn to crime.