strengths and weaknesses of subcultural theory

strength of the subcultural theory

They explain how subcultures form and who may be more vulnerable to joining a subculture. The groups that are most likely to form a subculture are working class and the reasons why they’re most likely to join a subculture is because of status frustration

Weakness of ST

These theories only focus on crime committed by the working class. They fail to explain criminality by middle class and crimes such as white collar.

Another weakness of ST

They suggest people commit crime due to a failure in achieving material wealth. There are other reasons for why people commit crimes such as sex offences

What are all the criminological theories?

Biological- physiological (lombroso and Sheldon), genetic (twin studies and adoption), brain (phineas gage and raine), biochemical explanations (substance, blood sugar levels and sex hormones)

Individual- learning theories (skinner, Sutherland and bandura), psychodynamic (Freud and bowlby), cognitive (yochelson and samenow and kohlberg), personality (eyesenck)

Sociological- functionalism (Durkheim and Merton), subcultural (cohen and cloward and ohlin), Marxism (Chambliss), interactionism (cohen, cicourel, Becker), right realism (murray and fleson) left realism (lea and young)