Assess the usefulness of subcultural theories in explaining ‘subcultural crime and deviance’ in society today. The term subcultural crime and deviance is another way of describing the violation of laws or social norms by various groups within society. These groups have been explored in depth by many sociologists and they have attempted to explain subcultural crime and deviance through the existence of deviant subcultures. Originally, the work of Merton surrounding strain theory claimed that when there was a strain between the goals of society and the means of obtaining the goals then people would turn to crime. However subcultural theorists developed this idea claiming that people experiencing strain seek different forms of success.
Albert Cohen states that delinquency is a collective rather than an individual response. He argues that its mainly the working class youth who turn to delinquency due to the fact that they strive toward the success goals of mainstream culture but cannot get to that goal through approved means due to experiences of failure in education, living in deprived areas etc. which cause them to feel like they are denied status in mainstream society and experience status frustration. They then react to this by forming a distinctive set of values which oppose mainstream values and form a delinquent subculture. So by forming a delinquent subculture, it becomes a means of achievement through an illegitimate opportunity structure.
Cohen argues that Working class boys are often at the bottom of the status hierarchy because of failing the opportunity structure of education and the inability to get a good job. He argues that due to this they feel alienated from main stream society and therefore join like-minded males and invert society’s norms and values. For example steal as they know it’s against society’s norms and values. Cohen stresses that this is all because they are suffering from status frustration as their opportunities are blocked hence why they consequently reject middle class values by forming a delinquent subculture. Therefore in Cohen’s opinion crime and deviance is the product of status frustration.
Nevertheless, not always do people get influenced negatively into turning to gangs and making bad choices. Thinking about the gangster environment and about the people that have lived or live in such surroundings you may think that it’s not as bad as it looks or sounds like, but in most cases the people get dragged into situations that force them into joining gangs for protection; people have been impacted by the environment that they live in. They make their own choices, often leading them through several traumatizing events that might make them change. I believe that with a good education our youth will notice all the pointless violence and wasted futures that have been around; the more education one gets not only does it enrich the person who is devoting their life for education but it also enriches their families, communities, neighborhood’s future as well as it does for them. Environment has a lot to do with the choices that people make but thanks to knowledge people decide the path they want to take.
That usually means reverting to street crimes. These crimes include burglary, vandalism, and selling drugs. Those individuals feel that street crime is the only way they will obtain material success. Merton's theory may stand true when comparing social status with street crime; however, his theory becomes weak when the crimes include white-collar and business crimes. Therefore, Merton's theory has become an “anomie theory”.
Examine the role of access to opportunity structures in causing crime and deviance. Opportunity structures are seen to be one of the biggest factors that can lead to deviant behaviour or criminal activity such as stealing and selling drugs, an example of this would be a person not being successful in their education and unable to achieve socially approved goals by opportunity structures, this may result them to illegitimate opportunities such as crime so that they get what they want such as materialists things. Mertons strain theory helps explain this, he argues that people engage in deviant behaviour when they may become frustrated and stressed this often leads to criminal means of getting what they want by taking their anger out on someone else or also taking drugs to comfort them from their failure. Merton explains that there are two elements to this theory; Structural factors, which is society’s unequal opportunity structure and cultural factors, which is the strong emphasis on success goals and the weaker emphasis on using legitimate means to achieve them. Merton argues that deviant behaviour starts from the structure of society and because they are unable to gain something from socially approved goals by legitimate means.
The way society looks down upon the lower class results in the formation of gangs and their struggle for power and opportunity. Even from all the pressure of being in a gang, there always seems to be a small percentage of individuals who see through the violence and recognize that the fighting and morals of a gang are wrong.
It is produced from a feeling of indignation and intolerance for the conduct that takes place in prostitution. That feeling brings the opponents to believe that the society finds itself in a vulnerable position. In this vulnerable state, the community becomes threatened by immorality, but how can they determine whether or not sex for money is immoral? Perhaps, one would consider a profession in taking people’s homes that have been affected by the Recession more criminal than prostitution, but that occupation by no means criminalized. This brings one to the conclusion that it is impossible to assume there is one shared morality because different opinions exist.
The lower class boys are at the bottom of the social structure and have little chance of gaining a higher status in society. This is similar to Merton’s STRAIN theory, however Cohen said that instead of turning to crime, they reject the norms and values of mainstream society and instead turn to the norms and values of a delinquent subculture AO2. In this subculture the boys can achieve success because the social group has different norms and values from the rest of society. So in this culture a high value is placed upon criminal acts such as stealing and vandalism which are condemned by mainstream society AO1. In these subcultures the individual who doesn’t have a high status in mainstream society can gain it by committing crimes such as
Describing crime and deviance is varied across different cultures; history; social situations and place. It will look at the bodies that measure crime and look at the reasons why they are not accurate. There are several differences between crime and deviance, deviance is a violation of the social norms whereas crime is a violation of the laws of the land. Society has no power for deviance but the government can punish with crime. Much behaviour that was seen as deviant in the past has today become a criminal offence, as with crime behaviour seen as criminal is now seen as deviant.