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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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