This document provides an overview of subcultural theories proposed by sociologists Albert K. Cohen and Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin. Cohen argued that working class youth who cannot achieve societal goals through legitimate means develop status frustration and form delinquent subcultures with inverted norms. Cloward and Ohlin identified three types of subcultures - criminal, conflict, and retreatist - that emerge based on unequal access to legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures. While both perspectives take a structural view, Cohen sees deviance originating from subcultural values rather than just society. The theories are criticized for not explaining all types of delinquency and for assuming subcultures only form in response to failure.

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2. Re-cap of functionalist view and
intro to subcultural
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUnWtmXnKE

3. Subcultural Theories
• Subcultural theories argue that certain groups
develop norms and values that are different
from those held by other member of society.
• How good is your knowledge of some wellknown subcultures?
• How many can you recognise on the following
slides?

12. Question…
• What were these groups rejecting?

13. Subcultures
• Stanley Cohen (British sociologist) – not to be
confused with Albert K Cohen (USA
Sociologist) performed studies on the Mods
and Rockers in the 1960s and 1970s and found
that the media had a significant part to play in
amplifying deviance which in turn created
more Mods and Rockers and more violence.

15. Albert K Cohen
• What we are really interested in today
though, is the work of Albert K Cohen.
• In 1955, Albert Cohen published Delinquent
Boys: The Culture of the Gangs

16. Rise of Delinquent Subculture
• After World War II, and with the country returning to
normalcy, Americans were possessed once again by
the "American Dream.“
• People believed that a prosperous future could be
attained by education and employment.
• Values that emphasized ambition and material
success became dominant, and anything else was
not accepted as normal.
• Behind this promising climate, however, a great
fear about a rise in juvenile delinquency lurked.
http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimtheory/cohen.htm

17. The Delinquent Subculture
• Cohen’s work is a modification of Merton’s
position and of the Chicago School’s work on
social disorganisation.
• From his studies on delinquency, Cohen
makes two criticisms of Merton’s work:
1. Delinquency is a collective, not individual
response
2. Merton fails to account for non-utilitarian crime
such as vandalism and joy riding that produces
no monetary reward.

18. A Working Class Problem
• In "Delinquent Boys," Cohen asserted that
"the delinquent subculture was mostly to be
found in the working class"(Cohen, 1955:73).

19. Albert K Cohen (1950s)
• According to Cohen when groups of working
class youths’ realise they are unable to
achieve the goals (success) of society through
legitimate means they develop statusfrustration.
• Goals are rejected and new and deviant goals,
norms and values are created and a
delinquent subculture is formed.

20. Albert K Cohen
• Delinquent subcultures are formed mainly
amongst working class boys where material
deprivation and cultural deprivation leads to
educational failure.
• This failure can be explained by their position
in the social structure.
• Stuck at the bottom, they experience status
frustration and dissatisfation.

21. Albert K Cohen
• The delinquent subculture not only rejects the
mainstream culture, it reverses it.
• Activities condemned in the wider society
have high value within the subculture:
stealing, vandalism, truancy etc.
• Where youths may not gain prestige from
peers in mainstream, they do get prestige
from subcultural peers.
Gang / Delinquency in London
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooti-PC8dEk

22. Gang / Delinquency in London
• Published on Jul 14, 2012
• Over 190 different gangs are engaged in battles
across London's poorest areas. Gang members are
getting increasingly younger. This video asks - why is
a highly developed country losing control of its
youth?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooti-PC8dEk
• Watch the following video. What are some
the reasons the young people give for deviant
culture. What are the effects?

23. Subcultural/Structuralist
• Merton and Cohen both start from a
structuralist perspective – viewing deviance as
a result of unequal access to opportunity.
• Cohen, however, departs from the structural
view when he sees deviance as originating
from subcultural values and not society’s.
• His theory can be seen as a combination of
interactionist and structuralist.

24. Criticisms of Cohen
• Too focussed upon work class deliquency
• Stephen Box claims that rather feeling shame
and guilt at their own failure, youths feel
resentment against teachers and middle-class
youths whose values they do not share, and
who look down upon them.

25. Opportunity Theory
• Sociologists Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin
(1960) suggested that for deviance to occur,
people must have access to illegitimate
opportunity structures:
– Circumstances that provide an opportunity for
people to acquire through illegitimate activities
what they cannot achieve through legitimate
channels.

26. Subcultures
• Cloward and Ohlin identify 3 different types of
subculture:
1. Criminal emerge in areas where there is an
established pattern of organised adult crime.
Children learn from their parents and are
concerned with utilitarian crime – financial
reward.

27. 2. Conflict develop in areas where adolescents
have little opportunity for access to
illegitimate opportunity structures. Lack of
cohesiveness. Response is often gang
violence.
3. Retreatist some lower class adolescents form
subcultures around illegal drug use because
they have failed to succeed in both the
legitimate and illegitimate structures. Double
failures – as they have failed in terms of
criminal and conflict subcultures.

28. Criticism of Cloward and Ohlin
• They haven’t provided a convincing
explanation for every type of deliquency
• Taylor, Walton and Young argue that some
subcultures are not reacting to their own
failure, but still reject the norms and values of
mainstream society – for example hippies who
reject the goal of financial success.