The Formation of Subcultures. A subdivision within the dominant culture that has its own norms, beliefs and values Tend to emerge when people in similar

The Formation of Subcultures

A subdivision within the dominant culture that has its own norms, beliefs and values

Tend to emerge when people in similar circumstances find themselves isolated from the mainstream and band together for mutual support.

Delinquent subcultures emerge in response to special problems that members of the dominant culture do not face.

Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Delinquent behavior is rooted in class differentials between the lower-class and middle-class.

Delinquent subcultures emerge in the poor areas of large American cities

Lower-class children are evaluated by middle-class teachers on the basis of a middle-class measuring rod.

Lower-class children experience status frustration, and strain.



Working-ClassSociolization

+Middle-Class Values

of success

Lower-Class Failurein the school system

(among many)

Loss of self-esteemand increased

Feelings of rejection

School dropout andAssociation with delinquent

Peers(among some)

Increased hostility andResentment toward

Middle-class standardsAnd symbols, thus reaction

formation

Improved self-imageIn a gang context

And through negativeAnd malicious delinquent

behavior

Types of gangs1. Corner Boys2. College Boys3. Delinquent Boys


Is the most common response to middle-class rejection - corner boys try to make the best of a bad situation.

Most lower class boys become corner boys. Not a chronic delinquent but a truant. His main loyalty is to his peer group which provides support. They are well aware of their failure to achieve the standards of the

American Dream. Eventually, they get menial jobs and live conventional lifestyles.


There are few “college boys” on the corner. These boys continually embrace the cultural

and social values of middle-class. Their chances for success are limited

because of they are ill-equipped academically, socially, and linguistically.


“Delinquent boys” band together to form a subculture in which they can define status in ways that to them seem attainable.

Reaction formation: a mechanism that relieves anxiety through the process of rejecting with abnormal intensity what one wants but cannot obtain.

These boys turn the middle-class norms upside down, thereby making conduct right in their subculture precisely because it is wrong by the norms of the larger culture.


Begins with the assumption that conventional means to success are not equally distributed among the socioeconomic classes.

The lack of means causes frustration for lower-class youths which leads to criminal behavior learned and culturally transmitted.

The type of delinquent behavior they engage in depends on the illegitimate opportunities available to them.

Criminal Gangs In areas where conventional and

illegitimate values and behavior are integrated by a close connection of illegitimate and legitimate business, “criminal gangs” emerge

Older criminals serve as role models. Teach youngsters the kinds of people to exploit and the necessary criminal skills

Teach the importance of loyal relationships with criminal associates and the way to make the right connections.


Conflict Gangs Their goal is to gain a reputation for

toughness and destructive violence Examples include biker gangs


Retreatist Gangs This type of gang is described as a double

failure given their lack of success in legitimate and illegitimate activities

Characterized as interested in alcohol and drug abuse.



Limited access to legitimate means of achieving

desired economic success

Feelings of frustrationand deprivation,

leading to gang formation

Stable, integrated conventionaland criminal

systems=criminal, theft gang

Nonintegrated systems, absenceof criminal organization.

instability = conflict, violent gang

In either type of neighborhood,double failure, residualadolescence = retreatist

“gang” or retreatist response

Predominance of one of threetypes of gangs, depending on the Integration of conventional adult

and criminal adult value and behavior systems in a neighborhood

Subcultures that adhere to conduct norms conducive to violence are referred to as subcultures of violence

Violence is not considered antisocial. Members of this subculture feel no guilt about their aggression.

Critics argue that economic factors, not cultural ones explained regional variation in homicide rates.


Study conducted by sociologist Elijah Anderson (1999) wrote work titled “Code of the Streets” among young African Americans.

He argued that violence arises from despair and alienation in which they live.

They often adopt a certain “look” involving they way they dress, move, and talk.

At the heart of the code is the issue of “respect”.


Display nerve by initiating physical and verbal attacks, even at the risk of their life.

Distrust of the police and courts also helps explain urban violence.

Young urban males feel they can not count on the legal system for help and deem it necessary to use violence to defend themselves, their families and friends.


To Miller, juvenile delinquency is not rooted in the rejection of middle-class values; it stems from lower-class culture, which has its own value system.

Gang norms are simply the adolescent expression of the lower-class culture in which the boys have grown up.

The value system, not the gang norms, generates delinquent acts.


1. Trouble – prestige and respect2. Toughness – masculinity, denial of

sentimentality and display of physical strength.

3. Smartness – outsmarting, outwitting4. Excitement – risks, danger and thrills5. Fate (luck) – lucky break6. Autonomy – being independent of

authority figures such as the police, teachers and parents.


Between 50 and 70% of gang members have access to weapons.

From 1989 to 1997 nearly 20,000 juveniles were murdered in the United States.

More than half of juvenile homicide victims are killed by a firearm.

Juveniles killed by a firearm increased 44% from 1988 to 1997.


Studies show that girls, like boys, join gangs for mutual support, protection, and a sense of belonging.

Between 10 to 25 percent of gangs members nationwide are female – higher in major cities.

Many of the female gangs are affiliates of male gangs offering support for the young men or their “homeboys”


Delinquent Gangs Hate Gangs Satanic Gangs


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The Formation of Subcultures. A subdivision within the dominant culture that has its own norms, beliefs and values Tend to emerge when people in similar