Think about the influence of subcultures on opportunities
This chapter reviews the dominant theories of the 1950s. Combining Sutherland’s Chicago-School approach with anomie theories, the subcultural theories of Cohen and Cloward & Ohlin were the mainstay of criminology. Those two theories are reviewed in detail, as is the Miller’s theory of a separate lower class culture with its own “focal concerns.” Wolfgang and Ferracuti’s subculture of violence is briefly presented and the similar “southernness hypothesis” approach is reviewed. Cloward and Ohlin’s differential opportunity theory was embraced by the federal government and was a major factor in the emergence of the “Great Society” of the Kennedy and Johnson years.
Learning Objectives
Objective 7.1: Discuss what is meant by a subculture.
Objective 7.2: Describe Cohen’s view of gang behavior and how it forms.
Objective 7.3: Explain what Miller meant by lower-class focal concerns.
Objective 7.4: Compare and contrast community opportunities as seen by Cloward & Ohlin and how they contribute to gang activity.
Objective 7.5: Discuss some of the programs designed to offset the negative influences of gangs in inner cities.Key Concepts and Phrases:
near groups Mobilization For Youth Project
focal concerns Southernness hypothesis
status frustration middle class measuring rod
collective solution degree of integration
criminal subculture subculture of violence
reaction formation illegitimate opportunity
neutralizations subterranean values
retreatist subculture conflict subculture Discussion Topics/Assignments
Think about the influence of subcultures on opportunities, and explain if you think Cloward and Ohlin were correct about the presence of an illegal opportunity structure and its greater availability to the lower classes? Given today’s criminological treatment of white-collar crime, is there different access to white-collar crime opportunities by class? (450 words)
Solution preview for the order on Think about the influence of subcultures on opportunities
APA
510 words