Subculture Theories

• Subcultural theory explains how certain social groups develop their own values, norms, and behaviors that differ from mainstream society.

• Helps explain why criminal or deviant behavior emerges within specific groups.

Main Ideas

• Provides a group-level explanation of crime.

• Focuses mainly on youth, gangs, and delinquent groups.

• There are multiple subculture theories, but all examine how group values influence behavior.

Key Questions

• Where does delinquent culture come from?

• Why do certain groups develop different values and behaviors?

• What explains the spread and content of delinquent culture?

Albert K. Cohen (1955) – Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang

Main Idea

• Cohen focused on delinquent gang culture rather than individual delinquency.

• Believed many youths experience status frustration because they cannot meet middle-class standards and expectations.

Status Frustration

• Youth seek respect, recognition, and social status.

• Lower-class youths often lack opportunities to succeed through school or other conventional middle-class paths.

• Because they cannot achieve status conventionally, they form alternative groups or gangs with different values.

How Subcultures Form

• Youth who fail to achieve middle-class success create their own subculture with alternative standards for gaining status.

• Behaviors rejected by mainstream society may become valued within the group.

Real-Life Application

• Academic pressure, school failure, lack of opportunity, or social rejection can push youths toward alternative peer groups or gangs where they can gain acceptance, identity, and status.

• Example: A student who struggles academically may gain respect in a delinquent peer group through fighting, stealing, or rebellious behavior instead of grades or school achievement.

Richard Cloward & Lloyd Ohlin (1960) – Differential Opportunity Theory

Main Idea

• Delinquency is influenced by both:

  • Lack of legitimate opportunities

  • Presence of illegitimate opportunities

Differential Opportunity Theory

• People are exposed to:

  • Legitimate means → legal and socially accepted ways to achieve success (education, jobs, careers)

  • Illegitimate means → illegal or socially unacceptable ways to achieve goals

Key Concept: Illegitimate Means

• Illegal opportunities available within certain environments or groups.

• Some communities provide greater access to criminal networks, gangs, drug markets, theft rings, or other illegal opportunities.

Main Argument

• Crime is more likely when individuals:

  • Cannot access legitimate opportunities for success

  • But do have access to illegitimate opportunities

Example

• A teenager in a low-income neighborhood cannot afford college or find a stable job (lack of legitimate opportunity).

• At the same time, organized criminal activity in the neighborhood provides an accessible way to make money (presence of illegitimate opportunity).

Key Idea

• Not everyone has equal access to either legal or illegal opportunities, which helps explain differences in delinquency and gang involvement.

Albert Kobrin (1951) – Duality of Conduct Norms

Main Idea

• Conventional and delinquent norms can exist at the same time within the same community.

• Youth are exposed to both law-abiding and criminal values simultaneously.

Duality of Conduct Norms

• Young people often live in “two worlds”:

  • Conventional world → school, family, lawful behavior

  • Delinquent world → gangs, deviant peers, criminal behavior

• Youth may have “a foot in both doors,” meaning they move between both types of social norms.

Key Concepts

• Some youths fail to achieve socially accepted goals, creating strain and frustration.

• As a result, subcultural groups form among youths who share similar experiences and values.

• These shared experiences strengthen group bonds and delinquent behavior.

Three Groups of Juveniles

1. Frequently delinquent → regularly engage in delinquent behavior

2. Frequently non-delinquent → usually conform to societal rules

3. Occasionally delinquent → move between conformity and delinquency depending on situation or peer influence

Key Idea

• Delinquency is not always permanent; many youths balance both conventional and delinquent norms depending on their environment and social groups.

Walter Miller (1958) – Lower-Class Culture & Gang Delinquency

Main Idea

• Miller explains delinquency through the existence of a distinctive lower-class subculture.

• Crime does not mainly result from failure to achieve middle-class success.

• Instead, lower-class communities develop their own values, traditions, and priorities.

Lower-Class Subculture

• Lower-class groups have cultures fundamentally different from middle-class culture.

• Members are not rejecting mainstream values entirely, but they prioritize different values.

• Delinquency can become a way to gain acceptance, respect, and status within the community.

Cultural Deviance Theory

• Subcultures develop as adaptive responses to marginalization and social conditions.

• These subcultures create distinct identities through music, language, clothing, art, and behavior.

• Delinquency reflects over-commitment to lower-class values rather than under-commitment to middle-class values.

Important Idea

• Individuals are aware their actions are illegal.

• They are not sociopathic; they commit delinquent acts to achieve goals valued within their community in the most realistic way available.

Focal Concerns (Miller)

Definition

• “Focal concerns” are the key values emphasized within lower-class male street culture, especially among adolescent gangs and street corner groups.

The Six Focal Concerns

1. Trouble

• Importance of getting into and avoiding trouble with authorities.

2. Toughness

• Value placed on physical strength, masculinity, bravery, and athletic skill.

3. Smartness

• Ability to outsmart others and avoid being deceived.

4. Excitement

• Search for thrills, risk, action, and adventure.

5. Fate

• Belief that luck or outside forces control life outcomes more than personal effort.

6. Autonomy

• Desire for independence and resistance to authority or control.

Key Idea

• Miller focused mainly on lower-class adolescent male groups and gangs.

• Delinquent behavior reflects the values and focal concerns of the lower-class subculture rather than simple rejection of society.

Elijah Anderson – “Code of the Street”

Main Idea

• Based on ethnographic study in Philadelphia (1990s).

• Examines inner-city life in structurally disadvantaged, often African American neighborhoods.

• Uses participant observation and interviews to understand daily social life.

• Key question: how representative are these dynamics of inner-city life nationwide?

The “Code of the Street”

• A set of informal rules and norms that govern behavior in inner-city neighborhoods.

• Especially regulates interactions involving respect, status, and violence.

• Coexists alongside conventional norms but often conflicts with them.

Core Principle: Respect

• The central value in the code is respect.

• Individuals must constantly prove toughness to gain and maintain respect.

• Disrespect can lead to retaliation, often through aggression or violence.

How the Code Emerges

• Developed as an adaptation to:

  • Poverty

  • Structural racism

  • Social and economic disorganization

• In environments where formal opportunities are limited, informal rules become more important for survival and status.

Street-Oriented vs Decent-Oriented

• Residents may be:

  • Street-oriented → adopt the code, prioritize respect, toughness, and reputation

  • Decent-oriented → follow mainstream values like work, education, and family stability

• The code is widely known even among those who do not fully follow it.

Zero-Sum Quality

• Social status is often zero-sum:

  • Gaining respect usually means someone else loses respect.

• Status is competitive and relational rather than shared or absolute.

• Example: Being “disrespected” in public requires response to restore status.

Key Idea

• The code of the street is a survival system in disadvantaged environments where respect, toughness, and reputation become central currencies for social order.