The Criminological Use of Culture and Subculture Understanding Criminology 2nd November 2006 Lecture Outline • Subculture: Definitions and Typology • Gangs and the variety of adaptations to strain • Social Class and Subculture • Drift Theory Culture and Subculture • Adaptations of Strain theory, with an awareness of the diversity of deviant forms • Initial focus on gangs and youth delinquency Subculture: Definitions • A relatively small grouping that develops distinctive norms, values and beliefs. Subcultures provide members with a range of personal resources (e.g. status, capital, excitement) that have often been denied by mainstream society / culture • Subcultural Theory: aim to identify the cause and expressive nature of subcultures Typology • Reactive / Oppositional Subcultures – The subcultural form is a direct reaction against mainstream culture - Most directly influenced by strain theory - Independent Subcultures - Subcultures develop their own values and norms of behaviour independently of mainstream culture William Whyte: Street Corner Society • Easier for a “slum” resident to achieve monetary success in a racket, than by conventional means • Role models: college boys v. corner boys • Gang activities highly organised • Pioneering participant observation based study • KEY: expressive nature of subcultures Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory • Delinquent practices are ‘culturally transmitted’ from one individual to another • Cultural conflict: if “definitions” favourable to law violation outweigh those unfavourable, crime will occur • Applied largely to white-collar crime, but has subsequently been applied to other crime • KEY: Cultural Transmission National = Strain / Inequality / Limited Opportunities Community = Legitimate and Illegitimate Opportunities Albert Cohen: “Delinquent Boys:The culture of the gang” • Subculture evolved in response to strain, and a rejection of ‘middle-class values’ • Education paramount: – Make children aware of social status – Key to the constraint of opportunities • Goal: status, not necessarily monetary success • An attempt to understand non-economic deviance • Gangs were a particular form of subcultural adaptation, characterised by: non-utilitarianism  malice  negativism  hedonism  versatility  group loyalty Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin • Focussed on the range that adaptations to strain could take, incorporating differential association • Criminal Gangs • Conflict Gangs • Retreatist Gangs • Returned to Merton’s focus on monetary success Evaluation of Strain Influenced Subcultural Theories • Fits with – Over-representation of working class, urban offenders in gang activity – A dominant / superior middle class culture • Possibly fits with – Gang activity being predominantly male: girls and young women have alternative sources of status? • Doesn’t fit with – Widespread, but petty offending – British experience David Downes: a British Perspective • In Britain, social class is central to understanding subcultural adaptation • Working class youth had a “realistically low” level of aspiration / fatalism • Delinquency as a ‘fact’ of life, but not a ‘way’ of life Downes and Subculture in Britain • Key cause of delinquency: boredom and the importance of leisure • little opportunity for excitement (akin to strain) • leisure became the location for excitement and expression of - toughness, daring, panache • Links between leisure and delinquency – proceeds of crime funding leisure – delinquency is itself exciting – delinquency is a by-product of certain forms of excitement Marxist analysis of sub-culture / counter-culture • Phil Cohen • Economic Decline -> – family tensions – fragmented community – economic insecurity • Mods: socially mobile white-collar worker • Skinheads: emphasising masculinity of hard manual labour David Matza: Drift and Neutralization • Sees subcultural theories are over-predictive • Drift: a ‘limbo between convention and crime’ preceding delinquency • Techniques of neutralization demonstrate continued commitment to mainstream cultural values • Delinquency represents the exaggeration of “subterranean”, but not deviant values: – the pursuit of excitement – the disdain for routine work – toughness and masculinity What is a Cultural of Deviance? • Pockets of specific activities providing meaning and resources to the member – E.g. The Gang • A widespread loose affinity between relatively informal groupings – E.g. Anti-globalisation environmental groups • A reflection of temporary adolescent rejection of parental / mainstream values – functional? • A vital mechanism that acts to support and reproduce mainstream culture Summary • Most cultural theories would expect more criminality than actually seen • Matza and Drift theory would not predict much ‘career criminality’ • Cultural Relativism: a danger that criminality is romanticized: the expressive qualitative nature of deviance is addressed: rarely the same focus on mainstream culture or victimisation