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SUBCULTURAL VIEWS (MARXIST (Very critical of the functionalist subcultural…
SUBCULTURAL VIEWS
FUNCTIONALIST
Cohen: - young working-class boys failing in school = delinquent subcultures to overcome status frustration. They achieve status through delinquent gangs
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Cloward & Ohlin: type of crime depends on the illegitimate opportunity structure in the neighbourhood.
- Criminal subculture - utilitarian crime (for material gain)
- Conflict subculture - gangs
- Retreatist subculture - drugs, drifters (often resort to crime anyway to get money for drugs)
Criticism: still focuses on working-class crime, but is more comprehensive than Merton & Cohen's views
Miller: delinquents are a part of mainstream working-class culture. Focal concerns of:
- smartness (street-smart)
- toughness
- excitement (due to having boring jobs)
These concerns are common to English football hooligans & occur when the concerns are expressed negatively. H/- not everyone expresses them through crime e.g. sports, gym etc.
MARXIST
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Hall & Jefferson -describes youth subcultures as symbolic/ritualistic attempts to resist the power of bourgeoisie hegemony by consciously adopting behaviour that appears threatening to the establishment
e.g. punk - resulted from government policies in working-class areas with young people left unemployed & towns deserted - the punk image is a very threatening look to the establishment
Youth subcultures emerge due to bad treatment from the state, being ignored & deprived - so they resist government control
Crime comes from the state's bad treatment of the working-class, not simply due to the working-class' way of thinkig
INTERACTIONIST
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Delinquency & drift:
- delinquency is often a phase & youth will conform later on. Youths drift in and out of delinquency (drift out when grown up, married etc.)
- crime is more casual than functionalist subcultural theorists make it seem, so functionalist subcultural views are too deterministic
Techniques of neutralisation
- denial of responsibility - "it wasn't my fault"
- denial of injury - "they can afford the loss, they're well off"
- denial of the victim - "they had it coming"
- appeal to higher loyalties - "my friends needed help, so I had to do it
- condemnation of the condemners - "you were just as bad in your day"
these help the criminal to justify their actions & makes it easier to drift out of crime as they can explain their way out