TOPIC 2: Strain and subcultural theories
- Created by: xemilygraceyx
- Created on: 21-04-16 21:09
Strain and subcultural theories
Robert Merton (1938):
- Crime and deviance = evidence of poor fit/strain between goals
- Resulting strain = led to deviance
- Not everyone shared same goals - stratified society: goals linked to person's position in social structure
1) Conformity = continue to adhere to goals/means
2) Innovation = accepts goals of society, uses different ways to achieve goals
3) Ritualism = sight of actual goal lost
4) Retreatism = rejects goals/means, e.g. dependent upon drugs/alcohol
5) Rebellion = socially sanctioned goals/means rejected, different ones substituted
Criticisms of Merton:
- Criticised for assuming there is value consensus in society
- Too deterministic = fails to explain why people who experience effects of anomie do not become criminals/deviants
The illegitimate opportunity structure
Cloward and Ohlin:
- Merton failed to consider illegitimate opportunity structure
- E.g. thriving adult criminal subculture in one area but may not exist in another area
- Greater pressure on members of working class to deviate --> less opportunity to succeed by legitimate means
1) Criminal subculture = thriving local criminal subculture, 'work way up ladder' in criminal hierarchy
2) Conflict = no local criminal subculture, people likely to turn to violence --> e.g. violent gang 'warfare'
3) Retreatist = no opportunity/ability to engage in other subculture --> resulting in retreat into alcohol/drugs
Evaluation of Cloward and Ohlin:
- Ignore female deviancy
- Assume everyone is committed to goal of achieving wealth = much greater variety of goals, some social groups have made conscious choice to reject goal of financial success
Status frustration
Cohen:
- All boys regardless of social class desired to achieve success in life
- Working class boys 'lack the means'
- Status frustration = sense of personal failure/inadequacy
- Working class reject middle class values --> e.g. behaving badly, anti-social behaviour
Miller (1962) - focal concerns:
- Smartness = should look good, be witty with 'sharp repartee'
- Trouble = 'I can't go looking for trouble, but...'
- Excitement = important to search out thrills
- Toughness = good to be physically stronger than others --> important to demonstrate this
- Autonomy = important not to be pushed around by others
- Fate = little chance to overcome wider fate
Applying SC theory: The British Experience
- Downes = young working class males detached from mainstream values, more concerned with 'having fun' than getting jobs
Subterranean values:
- Matza = no distinctive subcultural values
- All groups in society used shared set of subterranean values
- People control deviant desires --> rarely emerge
- Difference between persistent offender and law-abiding citizen = how often/what circumstances subterranean values emerge, justified by techniques of neutralisation
Techniques of neutralisation:
- Denial of responsibility
- Denial of victim
- Denial of injury
- Condemnation of condemners
- Appeal to higher loyalties
Subculture: the paradox of inclusion
Carl Nightingale (1993):
- Subculture emerges from desire to be part of mainstream US society that has rejected/marginalised them
- Black children consume US culture by watching TV with emphasis on consumerism - still excluded economically/racially/politically from participating in culture
- Response = overcompensate, acquiring articles with high-status trade names/logos
- High-status goods possessed = often obtained through violence in USA, expressed in violent gangs/high crime rates
Philip Bourgois (2002):
- El Barrio study - looked at lives of drug dealers/criminals in New York
- Believe in 'American Dream' of financial success
- Values of subculture little different from mainstream values --> difference: deal drugs in order to get money to pursue all-American lifestyle
Contemporary alternatives to subculture - 1
Maffesoli (1996):
- Better to think of subcultures in terms of 'fluidity, occasional gatherings and dispersal'
- Neo-tribes = states of mind and lifestyles, very flexible/open/changing
- Deviant values less important than stress on consumption/suitably fashionable behaviour/individual identity, can change rapidly
Connell (1995):
- Hegemonic masculinity = males conspire with/aspire to
- Similar to Miller
Winlow (2004):
- Values best seen within context of changing economic social structure
- Traditional/working-class male values fitted physical work undertaken by men in industrial settings
- Values inappropriate for contemporary employment
Contemporary alternatives to subculture - 2
Marshall et al (2005):
- 3 types of gangs:
1) Peer groups/'crews' = unorganised, hang around together, offending behaviour is incidental, does not reflect any great enstrangement from society
2) Gangs = focus on offending/violence
3) Organised criminal groups = most serious, heavily involved in serious crime, clear hierachy, illegal activities comprise occupation
BONUS STUDY: Owen Jones (2011)
- Being able to make brutal/sub-racist remarks about working-class = one acceptable form of discrimination left
- Gap between rich/poor increased = growth in negative stereotyping of working-class
- E.g. feckless, stupid, having too many children, not wanting to work
- Social mobility has declined = far smaller proportion of parliament/media come from working-class backgrounds
- Much less understanding of those permanently in low-paid work/less education
- Working-class = object of fear and ridicule
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