Crime and Deviance: Strain Theory and Subcultural Theory

Strain Theory and Subcultural Theory
Strain Theory

Robert Merton: Argues that the entirety of society is taught to beliece that they can achieve material success through meritocracy; however the working class tend not to be successful and therefore suffer from strain. He argues that the working class commit crime in society due to strain and there are five possible responses to strain:

1. Conformist - Keeps working regardless of failure in the hopes of achieving material success. 
2. Innovator - Creates new ways to achieve material success (ie. committing crime).
3. Rebel - They no longer want the goal as they failed to achieve it, resulting in violent crimes. 
4. Ritualist - Lose sight of the goal so they immerse themselves in the means. 
5. Retreatist - Lose sight of everything and give up entirely.

Robert Reiner: Discusses the role of the media. He argues that people don't achieve the success and the things that they think they deserve. Game shows have created and enforced immediate gratification. Therefore people get themselves in ridiculous amounts of debt, through buy now and pay late schemes. People innovate in order to get the thing that they want. 

Sumner: During periods of economic recession, property crime increases as people become unemployed, losing access to material success. But people still want to have everything that they had before but they can't so they innovate and turn to property crime. 

Cashmore: Discusses African Caribbean youth. He claims that they feel rejected by white society (they are 8x more likely to be stopped and searched) and they commit crime due to this, thus becoming the rebels of society and creating their own means and goals. 

Jock Young: Conducted a study called 'social bulimia' that showed relative deprivation occurred where a comparioson is made to others, usually the working class comparing themselves to the middle class. Therefore they suffer from humiliation and commit crime to vent their frustration. 

Ian Taylor: Argues that life is like a fruit machine and the goal is material success, the means are persistence and hard work and not everyone wins, except for the owners, the Bourgeoisie. Those who don't win then suffer from strain. People respond differently to this strain and these can't be defined through the five responses to strain. 

Subcultural Theory

Subcultural theory comes from Robert Merton's 'strain theory' as he ignores group crime and focusses on individual crime. 

Define: A subcukture is a culture within a culture with different norms and values to the mainstream. 

Colin Lacey: Argues that subcultures occur through two steps:

1. Differentiation - When a person is labelled different by society. 
2. Polarisation - This can have a positive response whereby they prove the label wrong, or in a negative way whereby they accept the label and form a subculture. 

Albert Cohen: 'Status frustration'. He agreed with Merton that the working class do commit crime due to frustration. However, he argued that it is not due to wanting money but wanting to achieve status. By creating an 'alternative status hierarchy' (a subculture) they can achieve status through creating their own norms and values. Therefore they become rebels as they cannot achieve status within society. 

Barry Sugarman: Argues that there are four elements of working class culture:

1. Fatalism - They believe that their future is pre-determined and as a result they do not try.
2. Collectivism - They believe that being part of a group makes them stronger, they need to have support from their peers. 
3. Immediate gratification - They only want success if they can have it now, they do not want to have to wait for things. 
4. Present time orientation - They do not have long term goals as they know they cannot achieve anything. 

Shaw and McKay: Studied Chicago in order to figure out the areas in which crime is committed. They found that most crime occurs within zone 2, the 'zone of transition', as there is a high social turnover and the people who remain in these areas are the ones who are unable to leave, there is no sense of community within zone 2 which is why most of the crime occurs within this area. 

Cloward and Ohlin: Agree with Merton that the working class commit crime. However, they argue, using Shaw and McKay's study, that not everyone has access to join or form a subculture, it is a matter of location. It is easier to become involved in a subculture in zone 2 than it is in zone 4. They argue that there are three types of subculture:

1. Criminal Subcultures - Where the balance has tipped and the criminals (social) have taken over. 
2. Conflict Subcultures - Where private and social housing live together, private keep the social under control in order to maintain a balance. 
3. Retreatist Subcultures - Occur within zone 4. People have everything going for them but they still fail. They fail at achieving success within society and they fail at committing crimes. 

Walter Miller: Critical of Cohen. He argues that the working class men have different 'focal concerns' (goals) in comparison to the rest of society so they don't commit crimes in order to achieve success, they do it to prove their masculinity. Men are competitive and have to be dominant to assert their masculinity, this can often result in them committing crimes. 

David Matza: Criticses subcultural theory as an over-exaggeration of crime. He argues that theorists are trying to label something that they don't need to as the majority of people within society are good. People that commit crimes are going through a phase. They have 'subterranean values' which mean that everyone has the potential to be deviant and people will suffer from anomie. When these periods of anomie have passed they will use 'techniques of neutralisation' (excuses) in order to justify their actions. 

Dick Hebdige: 'Resistance theory'. A subculture is a working class group of people who are setting their own norms and values as a protest against the Bourgeoisie, he sees this as a symbolic revolt. He uses the example of 'punks' in the 1970's as they shocked society in showing how they were different to the mainstream. They would take everyday items and use them completely differently. This illustrates that part of the working class have woken up and begun a resistance against the Bourgeoisie. 

Tony Sewell: 'Triple quandry theory'. He acknowledges that African Caribbean boys commit a lot of crime within society.  He blames this on 'black' culture and their family structures. 57% come from single parent families and therefore struggle to develop masculinity, resulting in them turning to their peers as a role model. He argues that as a result working class African Caribbean males:

1. Feel rejected by society - Cashmore: Discusses African Caribbean youth. He claims that they feel rejected by white society (they are 8x more likely to be stopped and searched) and they commit crime due to this, thus becoming the rebels of society and creating their own means and goals.
2. Turn to peers who have also been rejected by society - They create their own subcultures with anti-white values, they use these gang leaders as a father figure as they are the only people they feel accepted by so they shape their masculinity on them. 
3. Use the media as a role model - He refers to this as 'MTV culture' where women are viewed as objects that need to be owned by men. He argues that it values consumerism as it convinces these individuals that they need to own 'bling' and will turn to crime in order to achieve the success that they seek. 

Nightingale: 'Paradox of inclusion'. African Caribbean males want to be included in the mainstream, in order to do this they must value consumerism but they lack the means to get the consumerist goods. They then try to innovate through crime to get the goods and be like everyone else. However, when they get caught this results in them being isolated further from the rest of society. 

Maffesoli: Argues that all subcultural theories are out of date (metanarratives) as identities are fluid. Peoples identities change throughout their lives and subcultures don't exist anymore as everyone is fragmented. He argues that neo-tribes have replaced subcultures who group together based on consumerism, but as this is a phase they will grow out of it.