Subcultural Theory (Cohen)

What are the key aspects of Cohen’s subcultural theory?

• addresses questions about why groups commit crimes

• addresses questions about why individuals commit non-utilitarian (not financially motivated) crimes

• deviants conform to norms and values, they just happen to be different to those of the rest of society

• working class boys often initially share the same goals of mainstream culture, but end up in dead end jobs due to educational failure

• working class boys have little opportunity to attain the goals of mainstream culture

According to Cohen, what is lower class boys’ response to failure at school?

• the formation of subcultures or gangs

• inverting or reversing the values of school

• what was deemed taboo or deviant in mainstream society was praiseworthy and a way of gaining status in the subculture

• truanting, answering teachers back, destroying property/vandalism, etc.

What did Cohen’s subcultural theory seek to explain?

• delinquency among groups in society (e.g., young, working class males)

• non-utilitarian crimes

What are some criticisms of Cohen’s subcultural theory?

• Cohen has been criticised for his suggestion that members of delinquent subcultures consciously invert the norms and values of mainstream society

• e.g., if an individual decides to vandalise a bush shelter, it seems unlikely that they have consciously thought that mainstream society would consider this act unacceptable

• postmodernist sociologists like Lyng and Katz argue that individuals are more likely influenced by boredom

• Cohen does not truly link his theory much to gender

• feminists might expect girls to also form deviant subcultures if status frustration causes deviance