Subcultural Theories of Crime – A Summary

Last Updated on January 16, 2019 by Karl Thompson

Introduction/ The basics

• Subcultural Theory explains deviance in terms of a deviant group, split apart from the rest of the society which encourages deviance

• Historical Period: The 1940s- 60S, Underclass Theory – 1980s

Albert Cohen: Status Frustration

• working class boys try to gain status within school and fail, thus suffer status frustration

• Some such boys find each-other and form a subculture

• status is gained within the subculture by breaking mainstream rules.

Cloward and Ohlin: Illegitimate Opportunity Structure (IOS)

• A combination of strain theory and subcultural theory

• The type of subculture an individual joins depends on existing subcultures (which form an IOS)

• There are three types of subculture: Criminal (working class areas/ organised petit crime), Conflict (less table populations), and Retreatist (e.g. drug subcultures) which C and O saw as being formed by people who lacked the skills to join the former two).

Walter Miller: Focal Concerns

• Saw the lower working class as a subculture with its own set of unique values

• Working class culture emphasised six focal concerns (or core values) which encouraged criminal behaviour amongst working class youth.

• Three examples of these focal concerns where toughness (physical prowess), excitement (risk-taking) and smartness (being street-smart)

Charles Murray: Underclass Theory

By the 1980s an Underclass had emerged in Britain.

• Key features = long term unemployment, high rates of teen pregnancies and single parent households

• Means children are not socialised into mainstream norms and values and have become NEETS

• The underclass is 20 times more criminal than the rest of society.

Overall Evaluations of Subcultural Theories of Crime

Positive

Negative

Unlike Bonds of Attachment Theory recognises that much crime is done in groups, not lone individuals Unlike Functionalism does not see crime as functional.

X – Contemporary research shows gang (subculture) membership is more fluid than the above research stuggests X – Recent research shows that the underclass doesn’t really exist and working class culture is more complex X – There is a much wider variety of subcultures today X – Ignores the role of agents of social control labelling in subculture formation X – Underclass Theory is ideological – based on moral panics X – Marxism: ignores the crimes of the elite.