• Merton (1968) developed Durkheim's concept of 'anomie' into his 'strain theory' .

• Taking the American Dream of economic success he pointed out that it was not possible for everyone to achieve this goal.

• So how do we cope? • Some succeed by legal means, others turn

to illegal paths, some give up on the goal and others make up their own goals

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

ConformityThe response of the majority

They accept the goals of society and the legal means to achieve them

Typical ‘law abiding’ citizen

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

InnovationAccept the goals of society - material success

But reject legal ways of achieving them

May turn to crime to achieve a good lifestyle

Some turn to gambling to achieve this which is not illegal but not the ‘normal’ route to success

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

RitualismIndividuals lose sight of the goals - or give up

But continue to obey the law

Stuck in a rut

May hope for lottery win

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

RetreatismIndividual loses sight of goals and the means

May ‘drop out’ or ‘opt out’ of mainstream society

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Rebellion

Individual rejects the goals and means of mainstream society

And substitutes them with new ones

These are often at odds with mainstream society

eg revolutionary, terrorist etc

Sociological Explanations Of DevianceEvaluating Merton's contribution• He ignores power and social class issues

Taylor 1971 sees Merton’s model as a gigantic fruit machine

‘only some players are rewarded…but nobody... asks who put the game there in the first place’

• Merton fails to explain why an individual chooses one response over another

• Merton blindly accepts that there is a common core set of values shared by everyone

• Subcultures are usually defined as cultures within a culture e.g youth culture, working class subculture etc.

• Some of these groups are antagonistic towards mainstream society and are often referred to as countercultures (see Willis study in Education notes).

• Those groups who want to overthrow the main culture are called 'contracultures'

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Subcultural Theories

• Subcultural theory has its roots in the Chicago school which earlier this century identified a zoning process in the city whereby groups of similar cultural background occupied the same neighbourhood.

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Subcultural Theories

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Albert Cohen (1966)An American - he looked at subcultures and gangs

WC male deviance was not necessarily related to economic ends

Vandalism has no economic reward!

He explained such acts in the context of ‘status frustration’

i.e. Failures at school, often unemployed or in dead end jobs, lived in poor areas and therefore felt they had little stake in ‘mainstream’ society.

Subcultural Theories

• A number of British studies have supported Cohen’s views

• James Patrick – A Glasgow Gang Observed 1973 – see methods notes

• David Hargreaves – Deviance in the Classroom 1975

• Stephen Ball – Beachside Comprehensive 1981

• Paul Willis – Learning To Labour 1977• (all in Education notes)

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Evaluating Cohen’s views

1. Interpretivists question the idea that we all share such a common value system.

2. All subcultural theories mainly focus on males. Feminists have used the phrase ‘malestream’ sociology to show how females have been ignored in sociology (at least before the 1970’s)

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Evaluating Cohen’s views

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Cloward & Ohlin 1961 Looked at similar issues to Cohen and

linked aspects of subcultural theory to Merton’s concept of anomie:-

Subcultural Theories

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Criminal SubcultureThis occurs in areas where

an established underworld already exists

Young males serve ‘apprenticeships’ in this world

e.g. the world of the Kray twins

Subcultural Theories

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Conflict SubcultureNo clear criminal underworld existsNo ‘apprenticeships’ to followYoung males turn to gangse.g Patrick’s study of Glasgow gangs

Subcultural Theories

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Retreatist SubcultureThese are seen as ‘double’ failuresNeither able to serve ‘apprenticeships’ or

join gangsResort to drug abuse and petty crime.

Subcultural Theories

• The above subcultural approaches have often been criticised for being too deterministic – i.e they see the deviant as a product of his/her social background.

• Matza attempts to address this shortcoming by showing that we operate with double standards – on the surface we share common law abiding values, but underneath we can occasionally let ‘opposite’ values affect our behaviour

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Matza 1964

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Subterranean ValuesPeople have a surface where they accept

the mainstream valuesBut underneath we have opposite values

which surface from time to timee.g. a wife/husband commits adultery a boss gets drunk at the office partyWhat Freud calls the ‘monsters of the id’

Matza

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Techniques Of NeutralizationHow people explain ‘untypical’ behaviour‘I was drunk’ ‘It’s Christmas’ etc.‘Everyone does it’The difference is that some groups - the WC

commit a lot of their acts in public.Consider acts of drunkeness on the street on a

Saturday night and in a rugby club- who is more likely to be arrested

Matza

Sociological Explanations Of Deviance

Evaluating Matza’s Work Matza adds some balance to the

deterministic views of the structuralists

But the techniques of neutralisation may be just excuses

Matza