JUVENILE Cult

DELINQUENC
ura l De
vian
c e Th
eory

Y Strai
n Theo
ri es

SAN JOSE, JEWEL Socia

SAN JOSE, REANICOLE l Co n
Theo trol
SAN NICOLAS, EDCEN ries
A. INTRODUCTION
1) A new explanation for crime began to focus on conditions that were in
place before the act occurred, giving rise to the positive school of
criminology.

• a. While biological and psychological theories blame delinquency on factors

inside of children, sociologists in the 20th century challenged this view by
asserting that criminality was caused by factors outside of the child

• b. The 3 major schools of thought that will be covered

 1s
2nd 3rd
t
Cultural Social
Strain
Deviance Control
Theories
Theory Theories

blames children are

children are
delinquency on inherently good, inherently
rapid social but are victims amoral and
change which of circumstance will engage in
weakens and commit acts of
neighborhood delinquency delinquency
controls on when under unless
children. extreme pressure
prevented
Cultural Deviance Theory
C L I F F O R D S H AW A N D H E N RY M C K AY
( C O N C E N T R I C Z O N E T H E O RY )
A. Shaw and McKay came up with the notion that
delinquency is the result of the neighborhood in which a
child lives.
To test this theory, they divided up Chicago into 5
concentric circles or zones

They found that delinquency rates tended to be the

highest in the first two zones, while it declined
significantly in each subsequent zone.
T O T E S T T H I S T H E O R Y, T H E Y D I V I D E D U P
CHICAGO INTO 5 CONCENTRIC CIRCLES
OR ZONES:

1. Central Business District

2. Transitional Zone
3. Working Class Zone
4. Residential Zone
5. Commuter Zone
The explanation for their findings was in terms of
culture and environment.
I. R U N D O W N A R E A S C R E AT E S O C I A L
D I S O R G A N I Z AT I O N
I I . S O C I A L D I S O R G A N I Z AT I O N F O S T E R S
C U LT U R A L C O N F L I C T S
I I I . C U LT U R A L C O N F L I C T A L L O W S
DELINQUENCY TO FLOURISH
I V. A L L O W E D T O F L O U R I S H ,
DELINQUENCY BECOMES A FULL-TIME
CAREER
Critiques of Shaw and McKay’s Theory
ROBERT RICHARD ROBERT
ALBERT
MERTON CLOWARD & AGNEW
COHEIN LLOY OHLIN
 Robert Merton
a. Delinquency is caused by conformity to conventional cultural values
American society has cultural goals that are sought by all, but most children have limited
institutionalized means of reaching those goals
ii. Since many children are unable to achieve these cultural goals, they will be pressured to
deviate from the norms of society in an effort to attain them (though children will cope with
this pressure in different ways)
b. Adaptation through conformity is the most common way for
children to deal with this pressure, but some seek other ways

i. Innovators turn to illegitimate ways to reach their goals.

ii. Ritualists accept institutionalized means but reject
cultural goals.
iii. Retreatists reject cultural & institutionalized means of
attaining their goals and become the ‘outcasts’ of society.
iv. Rebels want to change the existing system to reach their
goals (groups such as the ELF or the Weather
Underground).
c. Critiques of Merton’s Theory
i. Merton doesn’t say what the relationship is between strain and delinquency, nor
does he identify which juveniles among those denied legitimate means will engage
in delinquent behavior.
ii. He also exaggerates the homogeneity and solidarity of social classes.
iii. Also, Merton does not inform us of why some children tend to commit different
crimes than others.
iv. Margaret Farnworth and Michael Leiber are supporters of Merton’s theory and
state that ‘how the variable strain is operationalized’ determines what a study will
yield.
 Albert Cohen (Status-Frustration
a. Theory)
In his book “Delinquent Boys” Cohen argued that delinquents were malicious,
negativistic, non-utilitarian, versatile, loyal and cannot defer gratification

b. b. The middle class measuring rod, or the standard teachers use when they assign status
to students, can have a profound impact on how Americans judge children

c. c. Status frustration theory postulates that since children are judged by their ability to
follow middle class values in school, lower status children become frustrated with their
inability to fit in which drives them to form a delinquent subculture (one that rejects
middle class values)
d. Albert Cohen blames delinquency on:

i. The frustration children experience because of their lower class status

ii. Their inability to live up to middle-class standards

e. Critiques of Cohen’s Theory

i. There is a lack of evidence supporting the idea that lower-class delinquents reject
middle-class values

ii. In fact, Lee Rainwater argues that lower-class youth will attempt to live up to
‘middle-class’ values whenever possible
 Richard Cloward and Lloyd
Ohlin
Designed a theory to explain delinquency in terms of “what children want, and what they get”

i. Cloward & Ohlin argue that children join delinquent gangs because their legitimate path to
success is often blocked.

ii. For instance, lower-class children who desire money are the most likely to join a gang since
they may believe that they have no other means of achieving financial success.

iii. Blaming society for this inability to achieve such a success helps the delinquent to rationalize
their behavior to an extent
b. Cloward and Ohlin also identified 3 delinquent
subcultures, (criminal, conflict and retreatist subcultures)
i. The criminal subculture develops because there are successful adult criminals who
serve as role models, an integration of age levels, and cooperation between offenders and
legitimate people (lawyers, politicians, etc.)

ii. The conflict subculture develops largely as a result of social and cultural conflict in a
community. Since there is little help from legitimate people in this subculture, juveniles
will often resort to violence to vent their anger.

iii. Children who cannot succeed in the criminal or conflict subcultures are often led to
the retreatist subculture, (they are considered to be a ‘double failure’)
c. According to Cloward and Ohlin, delinquency is caused
by the pressure to succeed and by the lack of legitimate
opportunities.

d. Critique

i. A capitalist economy requires a large number of people to

fill the “boring, empty, dead-end and low-paying jobs”
 Robert Agnew (General Strain
a.Theory)
Agnew argued that there are 3 sources of strain:
i. Failure to achieve positively valued goals

ii. Denial of previously attained achievements

iii. Exposure to negative stimuli

b. The relationship between strain and delinquency is
indirect, not direct

i. How children react to strain is determined by other “conditioning factors” such as

their social-support system, self-esteem, etc.

ii. For example, some children will blame others for strain, while some will accept
responsibility for it.
c. Critiques of Agnew’s Theory

i. Though his theory is relatively new, there has been a

good deal of support for it
Social Control Theories
David Matza

Travis Hirschi
 David Matza
a. Matza believes that the difference between
delinquents and non- delinquents is severely
exaggerated.

i. Argues that delinquents are usually remorseful of

their actions and that peer pressure is the cause of most
delinquency (i.e. fear of being called a ‘chicken’)
b. Since delinquents feel guilty for what they did, Matza feels that they tend to absolve
themselves of that guilt by turning to one of five techniques of neutralization:
i. Denial of responsibility- This is where the individual who committed the criminal act (or accused
of committing a criminal act) views himself as a victim based on circumstance.
ii. Denial of injury-This is where an individual who commits a criminal act (or is accused of
committing one) feels like the actions committed were victimless because no one was physically hurt
or the crime committed was committed against another criminal.
iii. Denial of victim- This goes back to circumstances. Victims in this case are considered outcasts by
the general population so they deserved this type of treatment.
iv. Condemnations of condemners- This is when the individual who committed the criminal act (or
accused of committing a criminal act) sees the labeler as a deviant in disguise, they are just out to get
them, or by attacking them the wrongfulness of their behavior is confused.
v. Appeal to higher loyalty- The requirements of larger society have to be pushed to the side
because of affiliation in smaller groups, who directly provide fidelity and protection to the individual,
e.g., gangs
c. It is important to note that these techniques
of neutralization are often in place before an act of
delinquency is even engaged in
• d. Critiques
i. Some evidence supports the notion of the gradual decline of
participation in crime after the teenage years, known as the aging-
out phenomenon
ii. However, researchers such as Michael Hindelang did not find
support that delinquents typically “went along” with their friend’s
conceptualizations of delinquency simply due to peer pressure
 Travis Hirschi (Social Bonding Theory)
• a. Hirschi postulates that juvenile delinquency is inevitable unless society
“throws obstacles” in the path of potential deviants.
• b. The social bonding theory argues that the bond, or the glue that holds a
society together, is the way to deter delinquent behavior. It has four key principles:
• i. Attachment
• ii. Commitment
• iii. Involvement
• iv. Belief
c. Children with a strong bond to society are less likely to engage in acts of delinquency
since they will feel as if they have something to lose

• d. Critiques

• i. Several studies have found that juveniles with a strong attachment to parents/guardians
are less likely to be delinquent that those with a weak attachment

• ii. Also, children who are involved in activities (commitment) are said to be less likely to
engage in acts of delinquency according to Eric Linden and James Hackler

• iii. Marvin Krohn and James Massey have found that commitment is a better predictor of
delinquency than either attachment or belief

• iv. Robert Agnew criticized this theory when he discovered through research that social
bonding variables only explain 1 or 2 percent of future delinquency
THANK YOU!