According to the Ministry of Justice, in

April 2009 there were 2,126 15-17 year

olds and 9,497 18-20 year olds held in
custody in England and Wales. These are
down 12% and 1% respectively year-on-
year.

According to the Prison Reform Trust,

over two-thirds are expected to re-
offend within two years of release, with
over 40% returning to prison. With men,
the reconviction rate rises to 82%.
 Poor attainment at Peer
school, truancy and Drug or
alcohol group
school exclusion. pressure.
misuse and
mental
No responsibilities
illness.
Bullying and so focused on self-
alienation. gratification.

Lack of discipline at Hyperactivity.

home and in school.
Reasons why young
Troubled home people are more
life: violence and/or bad likely to be involved
communication in criminal activity… Learning problems.
between parents and
teenagers. Money
Deprivation such problems.
Potentially
as poor housing
dodgier lifestyle.
or homelessness.
According to a 1998 MORI survey of 11-16 year olds,
reported in the Youth Justice Board’s ‘Annual Report’,
only seven out of 10 school children can say with
certainty that they have not offended in the past
year and a quarter (24%) admit to committing an
offence during that time.

However, only one in six of those who admitted

offending said their last offence had been detected
by the police. In its ‘Crime Reduction Strategy’, the
Government estimates that young people under 18
commit around seven million offences a year.
* Researchers from University of Glamorgan interviewed offenders in
prisons and young offenders’ institutions.

* They investigated a variety of violent offences, such as carjacking,

street robbery, snatch thefts and certain kinds of aggravated burglaries,
along with retaliatory, dispute-related, gang and disrespect violence.

* In particular, they looked at the role played by factors such as street

culture.

* This study involved semi-structured interviews with 120 offenders (89

male and 31 female) serving sentences for violent offences in prisons
and young offenders’ institutions in England and Wales. The majority
were aged 26 or over and white, with 10 per cent defining themselves as
black, 12 per cent as mixed race, and just one as Asian.
• Mean number of previous arrests = 45, one-third arrested 50 times or
more. Previous convictions = 23, and more than a quarter said they had
been convicted of 30 or more offences.

• Overall, 92 per cent had used illegal drugs.

• About a quarter (23 per cent) said that they were members of gangs
or involved in them in some way.

• A further 11 per cent said they sometimes offended in groups, but did
not define them as gangs. In total, one-third said that they were
involved in gangs or criminal groups.
• More than a quarter (28 per cent) said that they had carried a firearm
of some sort, including air guns and replica guns. An additional 35 per
cent said that they carried some other weapon - usually a knife.

• Early analysis identified five main motives for street robbery: ‘good
times/partying’, ‘keeping up appearances/flash cash’, ‘buzz/excitement’,
‘anger/desire to fight’, and ‘informal justice/righting wrongs’.
• More detailed analysis revealed a range of individual and social
benefits, including status and respect within the peer group. This is part
of an emerging street culture in Britain that in some ways resembles its
American counterpart.

• Some offenders went out alone with the intention to rob an easy
target in order to buy drugs. Some robbed in groups or gangs for
excitement, while others stole from individuals who had wronged them
in some way, as a form of retaliation.

• Evidence collected so far suggests that being involved in street life and
certain forms of street culture is an important factor in understanding
violent street crime.
 Task
• Answer the following questions
• 1. Why do you think the culture of these
offenders is of interest?
• 2. What norms and values were expressed
by the offenders when they were
interviewed?
• 3. Why do you think they re-offended?
• 4. List at least three strengths or
weaknesses of this research - GROVER
 Sub-cultural theories of crime
Starter
1. To be able to describe Walter B Miller’s
sub-cultural theory of crime
2. To be able to evaluate Walter B Miller’s
theory.
Miller does not see deviant behaviour occurring due
to the inability of the lower class groups to achieve
success. Instead, he explains crime in terms of the
existence of a distinctive lower class subculture –
it’s not a reaction to poverty; it’s a way of life.

KEY CONCEPTS: lower class subculture; focal

concerns; toughness; smartness; excitement; fate;
trouble; peer status.
In his theoretical study Miller observes that this lower class group has
for centuries possessed their own culture and traditions which are
totally different from those in the higher classes. This thus suggests that
this lower class culture has been passed on not by one generation but
for much longer than this.
I’ve taught my lad to
duck and dive, laugh
at the police and drink
White Lightening in
I’ll teach my kids parks.
to fight, have a
laugh and be
streetwise.
 Walter B. Miller (1962)
Trouble
Miller
Millersaw
sawthe
thelower
lower
working-class
working-classsocialised
socialised
into
intodeviant
deviantsubcultural
subcultural Autonomy Toughness
values
valueshe
hecalled
called‘focal
‘focal
concerns’
concerns’ Focal
concerns

Fatalism Excitement

Smartness

Crime and Deviance 15 04/24/2021

Chapter 5: Functionalist
What are the Focal Concerns of this working class subculture?

Toughness: this involves a concern for masculinity and finds expression

in courage in the face of physical threat and a rejection of timidity and
weakness. In practice this can result in assault, and battery as the group
attempt to maintain their ‘reputation’.
I’m a geezer.
Come and have a go.
Excitement: Involves the search for ‘thrills’, for emotional stimulus. In
practice it is sought in gambling, sexual adventures and booze, which
can be obtained by a traditional night out on the town.
Fate: They believe that little can be done about their lives – and what
will be will be; they have no power to change anything.

I’ll prob’ly be in
Life’s pretty crap, so prison in a couple of
I’ve nothing to loose. years.

There’s nowt to do
except play with
my own dribble.
Smartness: this involves the ‘capacity to outfox, outwit, dupe, take
others. Groups that use these techniques, include the hustler, conman,
and the cardsharp, the pimp and pickpocket and petty thief.
Trouble: young working class males accept their lives will involve
violence, and they will not run away from fights.
Miller notes that two factors tend to emphasise and exaggerate the
focal concerns of the lower class subculture.

1. Close conformity to group norms within a peer group

2. Desire for status within the peer group.

We walk the same,

dress the same and
live life the same...
It’s my mission to
make people scared
of me. It’s the only
way I’ll gain respect
seeing as I’ll never
get power or status in
a job.
Your brain is a muscle –
Alphabet edit
• A B C D E F G H I J K L
• L T R R T T L L R T T R
• M N O P Q R S T U V WX
• L L T T L R T RR T L L
• Y Z
• L R
Choose a partner – One listens
and one describes Miller’s
theory.
How clear was the description?
Discuss!
 Evaluations
• Is this study empirical or theoretical? Why
is this a problem?
• What would Feminists say about Miller’s
ideas?
• Do you think the ‘Focal concerns’ only
apply to lower-class?
• Is Miller saying that youth’s are frustrated
by their lack of success?
• Do you think that young offenders have
the same goals as the rest of us?
 Chapter 5: Functionalist
04/24/2021 25 Crime and Deviance
And
Andnot
notall
alllower
lowerworking-
working-
class
classadopt ‘focalconcerns’
adopt‘focal concerns’
Many
Manymiddle-
middle-
class
classalso
alsoadopt
adopt
‘focal
‘focalconcerns’
concerns’
Ignores
Females
Critique of Walter B. Miller
 Re-cap
• How did Walter B Miller’s theory differ to
Merton’s Strain Theory?
• What was one criticism of Miller’s theory?
• What were the 6 focal concerns?
• Why is this called a sub-cultural theory?
Your brain is a muscle –
Alphabet edit
• A B C D E F G H I J K L
• L T R R T T L L R T T R
• M N O P Q R S T U V WX
• L L T T L R T RR T L L
• Y Z
• L R
 Objectives
• To describe and evaluate Albert Cohen’s
sub-cultural theory of crime.
• To describe and evaluate Cloward and
Ohlin’s Sub-cultural theory of crime.
 SCY6 Crime & Deviance: Structural/subcultural theories

He wrote
delinquent boys. 1955.

This is a structural theory because it argues that criminal

behaviour is the result of an individual’s place in the social
class structure.
KEY CONCEPT: non-utilitarian crime;
cultural deprivation; status frustration;
delinquent subculture.
SUMMARY OF STUDY:
He argues that delinquency is a collective rather than an individual
response to status frustration and their position in the class structure.
These guys give me
the only chance of
excitement and
status.
 Cohen argues Merton doesn’t discuss non-utilitarian crime such as joy
riding and vandalism so he sets out to explain this type of crime.

Why do I like to just

ruin things for no
money?
According to Cohen, working-class boys reject mainstream culture.
Because of their cultural deprivation and ensuing educational failure,
they are denied access to these cultural goals.

Hated school, failed

everything, no job, can’t
live a normal life.
For me, crime pays.
Working class boys experience status frustration because they are stuck
at the bottom of the stratification system with most avenues to success
blocked.

I sit around all day wi’

nowt to do, no money
and no dignity. I’ve
nothing to loose.
 They resolve their status frustration by rejecting the success goals of
mainstream culture and replacing them with an alternative set that they
can achieve within a delinquent subculture in which they can achieve
status & prestige. It’s a collective response to the problems of working
class teenagers.

So we get wasted in
the stairwell of our
council flat block,
We haven’t got a instead.
chance in hell of
being invited to a
cocktail party...
 “The delinquent subculture takes its norms from the larger culture but
turns them upside down”.

Teachers and the

papers want us to get
jobs, be polite, try ...so we’re going to do
hard at school and be exactly the opposite.
nice to old ladies...
 5 minutes !
• Can you describe the theory?

• What criticisms can you think of ?

• Feminists
• Marxists
• Interactionists
RESEARCH METHOD: this was a theoretical study.

WEAKNESSES:
• Box questions Cohen’s claim that delinquent boys reject
mainstream culture.
• Cohen ignores working class delinquent girls altogether.
• Matza backs up Box’s critique by arguing that not all
delinquents are strongly opposed to the values of
mainstream values, they tend to drift in and out of
mainstream society’s moral bind.
Your brain is a muscle –
Alphabet edit
• A B C D E F G H I J K L
• L T R R T T L L R T T R
• M N O P Q R S T U V WX
• L L T T L R T RR T L L
• Y Z
• L R
 SCY6 Crime & Deviance: Structural/subcultural theories

CLOWARD AND OHLIN

(1960) They wrote
Delinquency &
Opportunity, (1961).

KEY CONCEPT: legitimate opportunity structure;

illegitimate opportunity structure; criminal subcultures;
conflict subcultures; retreatist subcultures; utilitarian
crime; non-utilitarian crime.
SUMMARY OF STUDY:
They focused on how peoples’ opportunities to be deviant are also
different: not everyone gets the same chances to be crooks; some
have better opportunities to enter into a criminal career, particularly
if they have access to a criminal subculture.
Can you take my son
under your wing? I
want him to know
everything there is to
know about
protection
racketeering.
By examining access to, and opportunity for entry into, illegitimate
opportunity structures, they provide explanations for different forms of
deviance.
They begin by arguing that amongst working-classes there is limited or
no access to legitimate opportunities like education. So they turn to
illegitimate opportunities more easily.

So we’ve no chance
of getting work.
We were all expelled We’ve got time and
from school. no self-respect and
that’s why we get up
to no good.
Clo and Oh state that depending on the availability of illegitimate
opportunities, young people can enter into one of three deviant
subcultures:

Criminal subcultures are established and organized criminal networks

which provide a learning environment for young criminals from criminal
role models. They are largely concerned with utilitarian crime that
derives financial rewards.
Conflict subcultures develop in areas of limited access to either the
legitimate or the illegitimate opportunity structures.

There is little organized adult crime to provide an apprenticeship in

criminality.
Gang violence is a predominant response.
Retreatist subcultures have failed to succeed in both the legitimate and
illegitimate opportunity structures and are therefore double failures.

Their activities centre mainly around illegal drug abuse.

I’ve no qualifications, And we’re too soft

no job and no future and stupid to be
in the normal world... gangsters. So we just
get wasted instead.
RESEARCH METHOD: this was a theoretical study that combined the
ideas of both Merton and Cohen.

WEAKNESSES: Burke identifies three main criticisms of their work:

1) the idea of the criminal subculture is based on gangs in Chicago in the

1920s and 30s so isn’t particularly applicable to modern British society;

2)Again the theory focuses on MALE deliquency.

3) the idea of retreatist subcultures is a ‘grossly simplistic’ explanation of

drug abuse which is actually really common among middle class people.
 Plenary
• Describe Albert Cohen’s theory including
one criticism to a listening partner.
• Discuss the clarity of the explanation
• Swap round and now the other person
describes Cloward and Ohlin’s study
including a criticism.
• Discuss the clarity.
 Key word check
• Illigitimate/legitimate opportunity
structure
• non-utilitarian crime
• status frustration
• conflict subcultures
• retreatist subcultures
• With a partner create a role play of two
people who are ‘underclass’
 SCY6 Crime & Deviance: Structural/subcultural theories

He wrote
underclass. 1989.

KEY CONCEPT: underclass; welfare dependency;

SUMMARY OF STUDY:
Murray argues that crime is a cultural phenomenon – among particular
groups that share deviant norms and values.
He focuses on the underclass; a group in society that are at the bottom
of the socio-economic structure as they do not and cannot participate in
mainstream cultural activities such as education and / or employment
and are instead, reliant upon the welfare state.
He does not accept the idea that the underclass share the same morals
and values as the rest of mainstream society.

When we grow up, we When we grow up, we

want good jobs and want to go on the dole
nice houses. and rob your houses.
 Murray sees the underclass as responsible for a high proportion of
crime and explains their criminality in terms of their rejection of
mainstream norms and values.
The over-generous payments of the welfare state have made it possible
for young women to see single motherhood as a lifestyle choice and for
young men to cast away the idea that they should be a breadwinner.
 Children are brought up in an underclass culture that deviates away
from the mainstream ideals of individual responsibility and morality. So
this is a cultural explanation of crime as people are brought up to hold
underclass and therefore deviant norms and values.
RESEARCH METHOD: this was a theoretical study.

WEAKNESSES: Not everyone on benefits is persistently welfare

dependent – most go out and find employment. What about white
collar crime? The underclass only make up a very small proportion of
the British population so it can’t be used as a general cultural
explanation of crime.
 SCY6 Crime & Deviance: Structural/subcultural theories

He wrote
delinquency & drift.

KEY CONCEPT: juvenile delinquency; subterranean values;

techniques of neutralization; mood of humanism; mood of
fatalism;
This American sociologist has attacked some of the assumptions on
which sub-cultural and structural theories are based, and provided his
own explanation.

Matza claimed that delinquents are similar to everyone else in their

values and voice similar feelings of outrage about crime in general as
the majority of society.

Matza’s theory also brings in an element of the action approach, which

focuses on the way behaviour is adaptable and flexible and involves
dimensions of choice and free will.
Thus Matza is suggesting that male delinquents to be…
committed to the same values and norms as other members of society.

Society has a strong hold on them and prevents them from being
delinquent, most of the time.

He exemplifies this point by noting that

delinquents often express ‘regret’ and
‘remorse’ at what they have done.

And when in ‘training school’ shows

disapproval to crimes such as mugging,
armed robbery, fighting with weapons
and car crime.
Far from being deviant this group are...casually, intermittently, and
transiently immersed in a pattern of illegal activity to put it into Matza’s
words.

They drift into deviant activities. In other words, there is a lot of

spontaneity and impulsiveness in deviant actions.

I’m BORED.
I feel like being
naughty today.
Subterranean Values

The first point that Matza made is that we all hold two levels of values.

1. Conventional Values, roles such as father, occupation

2. Subterranean Values values of sexuality, greed and aggressiveness.

These are however, generally controlled, but we all hold them, and we
all do them.
Matza thus suggests that delinquents are simply more likely than most
of us to behave according to subterranean values in ‘inappropriate’
situations.
Techniques of Neutralisation
If delinquents are as much committed to conventional values as anyone
else and, furthermore, express condemnation of crimes similar to the
ones they themselves commit, why do they commit them at all?

Matza suggests that delinquents justify their own crimes as exceptions

to the rule.
‘Yes, what I did was wrong, but...’
They are thus able to convince themselves that the law does not apply
to them on this particular occasion.
We’re not at school cos it’s
boring and it won’t do us any
good. We know it’s wrong and
that, but we don’t need to go.
Denial of responsibility for the deviant act – the delinquents may
remove responsibility from themselves by blaming their parents
or the area in which they live.
Denial of injury – resulting from the act – the delinquents may
argue that joy-riding does not harm anyone, it is just a bit of
mischief and that they were borrowing the car.
Denial of that the act was basically wrong – an assault on a
homosexual (‘Queer Bashing’ was ubiquitous in the 1980s) or
attack on an expensive shop seen as ‘rough justice’.
Condemnation of those who make the rules – the police may be
seen as corrupt or teachers as unjust hypocrits.
Appeal to higher loyalties - the delinquents may argue that they
broke the law not out of self interest but to help family or
friends.
 Chill, the bloke got his He deserved a
slap, that’s what Mum didn’t get our
car back. giro this week, so I
No harm done. happens when
you’re queer. got us some beers in.
Didn’t actually pay for
‘em, mind.

I smashed up the The bizzies are

phone box because constantly picking on
my mum’s giving me me so of course I
a hard time. chucked a brick at
their van.
1. Subculture
2. lower class subculture
3. focal concerns
4. peer status
5. non-utilitarian crime
6. cultural deprivation
7. status frustration
8. delinquent subculture
9. legitimate opportunity structure
10. illegitimate opportunity structure
11. criminal subcultures
12. conflict subcultures
13. retreatist subcultures
14. utilitarian crime
15. underclass
16. welfare dependency
17. edgework
18. paradox of inclusion
19. ASBO
 A social group that supports norms and values
What is meant by the concept that are different from mainstream culture,
of subculture? usually because members of the group are non-
achievers in mainstream society.

What type of crime does

subcultural theory focus on? Juvenile delinquency.

What is the central goal which Status – feelings of self-worth or

people attempt to attain in esteem, both in the eyes of others
modern societies, according to and the individual.
Albert Cohen?

Why are working class boys

more likely to fail at school, Parents fail to equip them with the
according to Cohen? necessary skills.
 Why does Cohen blame Schools deny working class children status by
education as well as parents placing them in bottom streams/sets and
for working class delinquency? labelling them as failures.

What concept does Cohen

suggest to explain the disaffection Status frustration.
of working class boys?

How do they compensate for They form anti-school subcultures and

the disaffection they feel? award status to each other on the basis
of anti-school and delinquent activities.

What alternative sociological

term can be used for Counter cultures.
delinquent subcultures that
reverse social norms and
values?
How might you use Paul Willis’s The lads chose to fail and engage in delinquent
study of working class lads to activities because they saw qualifications as
irrelevant to their futures, rather than because
criticise Cohen’s ideas? they had experienced status frustration.

What criticism might be made

of the way that Cohen views His view suggests that all working
working class parenting? class parents are inadequate.

What role do working class He ignores working class girls

girls play in Cohen’s analysis? altogether.

How might the concept of drift

be used to criticise subcultural Young people often drift between
theory? conformity and deviance.

How does Walter B Miller view
lower class culture?
Why do lower-class youths
engage in crime, according to
Miller?
Give three examples of the
focal concerns that lead to
juvenile delinquency, according
to Miller’s theory.
What does Matza mean when
he criticises subcultural theory
for over-predicting
delinquency?
It is ‘naturally’ deviant, in that it subscribes to
values and norms that are likely to lead to
confrontation with mainstream middle class
society.
To compensate for the boredom of
the working class experience of
school and work.
Toughness and aggression; looking for
excitement; being streetwise; being very
masculine; autonomy; fatalism etc.
It implies that all working class youth
is involved in delinquency, but in
reality, only a small minority is.
What are subterranean values Values such as the need for
and who has them? excitement or to be outrageous and
most people subscribe to this.

Powerless groups, such as working class and

Why is labelling theory critical ethnic minorities are more likely to be
of subcultural theory? stereotyped as criminal or deviant for behaviour
that most groups engage in.

Black youths are excluded from society, but over-

What is meant by the paradox compensate by identifying themselves with
of inclusion? consumer culture through buying high-status
material goods and logos.

Why do Postmodernists reject There are no rational reasons, such as status

subcultural theory for being frustration or rejection, for delinquency –
too rational? delinquency is an irrational behaviour.
What do postmodernists mean
when they say that crime is
‘seductive’?
What does Lyng mean when he
describes delinquency as
‘edgework’?
Why might feminists be critical
of subcultural theories of
delinquency?
Young males quite simply get
involved in delinquency because it’s
thrilling.
Delinquency involves danger and
taking risks – going to the edge of
acceptable behaviour.
Subcultural theory generally ignores
female delinquency.