Key Takeaways
Introduction to Subcultural Theories
As a result, criminologists must define the cultural codes and traits that define that subculture such as codes of speech and conduct, styles of dress, shared emotions, and common problems — and, in turn, investigate the ways in which criminality within the subculture can offer members of the subculture a solution to a shared problem.
Subcultural theory emphasizes how criminals, in their own view, do not act criminally. As members of subcultures, criminals have different behavioral requirements, values, and norms than those of mainstream society. These criminals conform to their own subculture.
Becausedeviant behavioris a result of conformity, subcultural theories believe that deviation from mainstream society is inherently more common in some groups than others.
Subcultural theory emerged from two distinct sociological traditions (Williams, 2011). These sociological traditions had five notable thinkers:
Albert Cohen: Deviant Subcultures emerge because of Status Frustration
Albert Cohen (1955) argued that working-class subcultures emerge because people within the working class are denied status in society.
Cohen believed that working-class boys wished to emulate middle-class values and aspirations, but lacked the means of achieving success.
Status frustration, or more specifically, a sense of personal failure and inadequacy, emerged as a result.
Because this feeling of rejection and inadequacy extends to large groups of people, adolescents band together and form delinquent subcultures, which counter the norms and values of mainstream culture through offering status to those who are the most deviant.
Thisdeviancecan extend from malicious behavior to intimidation, the breaking of rules in institutions within schools, and even crime. This pattern of deviance begins in school before rising in severity later on, as deviants become truant or possibly involved in gangs.
The status frustration theory has received a large amount of pushback. Roach and Gursslin (1965) argued that there was little empirical support for the hypothesis, and that the theory itself is traced to the tendency of academic literature to obscure the actual characteristic of the lower-class.
Rather than considering status deprivation to be the principal characteristic of the lower class, Roach and Gursslin argued, material deprivation should be.
Cloward and Ohlin’s Illegitimate Opportunity Structures
Cloward and Ohlin propelled Cohen’s subcultural theory further in proposing that there are three types of deviant subcultures. These subcultures can emerge in response to the “illegitimate opportunity structure” available to the deviant subcultures.
These are criminal subcultures, conflict subcultures, and retreatist subcultures.
Criminal subcultures involve crimes carried out for practical purposes, such as theft. These subcultures, according to Cloward and Ohlin (2017), develop in stable working-class areas where there is an established pattern of crime.
For example, a young adult who steals valuable car parts or smartphones may find a way of financing education or vocational training.
Adult criminals in this subculture exercise social control over the young to prevent them from carrying out non-utilitarian delinquent acts — such as vandalism — which could attract the attention of the police.
Conflict subcultures, meanwhile, emerge in socially disorganized areas where there is high population turnover and thus a lack of community or social cohesion. This lack of social cohesion prevents the formation of stable adult criminal subcultures.
Both legal and illicit means of achieving mainstream goals are limited, and young people express their frustration at the lack of opportunity through street crime and obtaining status through following the values of their peer subcultures.
Retreatist subcultures emerge among lower-class youths who fail to succeed both in mainstream society and in crime and gang cultures.
Walter Miller’s Cultural Deviance Theory
Walter Miller (1958), following Cohen and Cloward and Ohlin, revived interest in delinquency as a product of alternative values. He posits that the underclass is responsible for the majority of street crime.
In contrast to other subcultural theories, Miller did not see deviant behavior occurring due to the inability of the lower/working class to achieve success, but in terms of the existence of a distinctive lower-class subculture.
Focal Concerns
Miller argued that, for centuries, the working class possessed their own culture and traditions fundamentally different from those of the higher classes. This culture, Miller suggests, has been passed on for many generations.
In comparison to higher social strata, the lower classes are concerned with:
Some studies that incorporate miller’s concerns in their designs show that all youth, regardless of their delinquency or class status, evaluate conventional images of success equally highly and more highly than delinquent ones (Carey & McAnany, 1984).
David Matza’s Delinquency and Drift
Matza’s theory also accounts for the way that behavior is adaptable and flexible, involving dimensions of choice and free will.
According to Matza, delinquents are committed to the same values and norms as the rest of society, and society prevents them from being delinquent most of the time.
When delinquents commit crimes, they express regret and remorse, and disapprove of crimes such as mugging, armed robbery, and fighting with weapons. In Matza’s words, these deviants drift into deviant activities through spontaneity and impulsiveness.
Although delinquents, in Matza’s theory, do not approve of crimes, they use techniques of neutralization to justify their own criminal behavior.
These can include denial of responsibility, denial of the victim, denial of the injury, condemnation of those who accuse them, and an appeal to higher loyalties, such as not believing it right to abandon one’s friends during a fight (Matza, 2018).
Everyone also, according to Matza, has a set of subterranean values — such as greed and aggressiveness — which are generally controlled, but may appear in particular situations. These subterranean values contrast with traditional values and roles, such as one’s place in one’s family or one’s occupation.
The last element of Matza’s (2018) subcultural theory of delinquency is drift, which provides a justification for why only some people commit crimes.
Matza argues that drift is a period in adolescence where an adolescent’s bonds from society are loosened, making them more susceptible to suggestions of deviant acts from their peer group.
This loosening of ties occurs as youths feel as though they lack control over their own lives and long to gain autonomy. Thus, to show that they have control over their lives, adolescents may commit a delinquent act without necessarily committing themselves to a life of crime.
Matza’s subcultural theory has received numerous criticisms.
One of these is its lack of attempt to group delinquency in a wider framework of economic and social circumstances that drive certain groups — such as male working-class boys — to commit more crimes than others.
Taylor, Walton, and Young (2013), additionally, raised doubts about the view that those who use the techniques of neutralization are not challenging the dominant views in society, and Steven Box (1987) suggests that evidence that criminals are remorseful may not be sincere.
Charles Murray’s Underclass Theory of Crime
Most recently, the American new right sociologist Charles Murray (2005) created the underclass theory of crime. This underclass refers to a group of people in America who were unemployed over the long-term and effectively dependent on government assistance.
Murray’s underclass theory of crime has proven contentious in sociology, with some researchers claiming that it has sparked “welfare politics” (Prideaux, 2010).
Subcultural theory vs. Cultural criminology vs. Social Control Theory
Cultural criminology is an approach to the study of crime that sees crime as a product of the culture in which it occurs. The people who commit and control crimes, in this view, use the meaning of established cultural practices as justification for the committing and controlling of crimes.
Subcultural theory has many similarities too, and is a subset of, culture criminology. Like cultural criminology, it critiques criminological models that ignore or assume the subtleties of how meaning and symbolism shape criminal subcultures.
In contrast tosocial control theorists, however, subcultural theorists believe that the pull of the peer group causes people to commit crime, rather than a lack of attachment to family or other mainstream institutions.
Subcultural theory also confers an advantage in describing crimes such as vandalism and “playing chicken” that strain theory cannot explain. Deviance, within criminal subcultures, is a cooperative response to marginalization.
References
Box, S. (1987). Recession, crime and punishment. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Carey, J. T., & McAnany, P. D. (1984). Introduction to juvenile delinquency: Youth and the law. Prentice-Hall.
Cohen, A. K. (1955). Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang. New York: Free Press.
Cohen, A. K. (2016) Kriminelle Subkulturen. In: Klimke, D. & Legnaro, A. (Hrsg.) Kriminologische Grundlagentexte. Springer VS: Wiesbaden. S.269-280.
Cohen, A. K. (1957) Kriminelle Subkulturen. In:Heintz, P. & König, R. (Hrsg.) Soziologie der Jugendkriminalität. Studien zur Sozialwissenschaft. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag. S. 103-117.
Cohen, Albert K. and Short, J. (1968). Research in Delinquent Subcultures. In:Journal of Social Issues, S.20–37.
Downes, D.M. & Rock, P. E. (2007). Understanding Deviance: A Guide to the Sociology of Crime and Rule-breaking (5th ed.). Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
Matza, D. (2018). Delinquency and drift. Routledge.Miller, W. (1958). Inter-institutional conflict as a major impediment to delinquency prevention. Human Organization, 17(3), 20-23.Miller, Walter B. (1958): Lower class culture as a generating milieu of gang delinquency. In:Journal of Social Issues, 15, S.5-19.Murray, C. (2005). The underclass. Criminological perspectives: Essential readings, 127-141.Prideaux, S. J. (2010). The welfare politics of Charles Murray are alive and well in the UK. International Journal of Social Welfare, 19(3), 293-302.Roach, J. L., & Gursslin, O. R. (1965). The lower class, status frustration and social disorganization. Social Forces, 43(4), 501-510.Taylor, I., Walton, P., & Young, J. (2013). The new criminology: For a social theory of deviance. Routledge.Thrasher, Frederic M. (1927). The Gang. A Study of 1,313 Gangs in Chicago. Chicago [u.a.]: University of Chicago Press.Whyte, William F. (1943): Street Corner Society. Chicago [u.a.]: University of Chicago Press.Williams, J. P. (2011). Subcultural theory: Traditions and concepts. Polity.Yablonski, Lewis (1959): The delinquent gangs as a near group. In:Social Problems, 7, S.108-109.
Matza, D. (2018). Delinquency and drift. Routledge.
Miller, W. (1958). Inter-institutional conflict as a major impediment to delinquency prevention. Human Organization, 17(3), 20-23.
Miller, Walter B. (1958): Lower class culture as a generating milieu of gang delinquency. In:Journal of Social Issues, 15, S.5-19.
Murray, C. (2005). The underclass. Criminological perspectives: Essential readings, 127-141.
Prideaux, S. J. (2010). The welfare politics of Charles Murray are alive and well in the UK. International Journal of Social Welfare, 19(3), 293-302.
Roach, J. L., & Gursslin, O. R. (1965). The lower class, status frustration and social disorganization. Social Forces, 43(4), 501-510.
Taylor, I., Walton, P., & Young, J. (2013). The new criminology: For a social theory of deviance. Routledge.
Thrasher, Frederic M. (1927). The Gang. A Study of 1,313 Gangs in Chicago. Chicago [u.a.]: University of Chicago Press.
Whyte, William F. (1943): Street Corner Society. Chicago [u.a.]: University of Chicago Press.
Williams, J. P. (2011). Subcultural theory: Traditions and concepts. Polity.
Yablonski, Lewis (1959): The delinquent gangs as a near group. In:Social Problems, 7, S.108-109.
Saul McLeod, PhD
BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester
Saul McLeod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
Charlotte NickersonResearch Assistant at Harvard UniversityUndergraduate at Harvard UniversityCharlotte Nickerson is a student at Harvard University obsessed with the intersection of mental health, productivity, and design.
Charlotte NickersonResearch Assistant at Harvard UniversityUndergraduate at Harvard University
Charlotte Nickerson
Research Assistant at Harvard University
Undergraduate at Harvard University
Charlotte Nickerson is a student at Harvard University obsessed with the intersection of mental health, productivity, and design.
