A theory holding that certain groups or subcultures develop values and attitudes conducive to crime and violence, articulated in its classic delinquency form by Albert K. Cohen in Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang (1955), which argued that working class boys unable to achieve status by mainstream middle class standards respond by inverting those standards into a delinquent subculture. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Core ClaimSourced to the subject's own accountWorking class boys who cannot achieve status by mainstream middle class standards experience status frustration and respond collectively by inverting those standards into a delinquent subculture that rewards behavior mainstream society condemns. 1 Origin YearSourced to the subject's own account Standing CritiqueSourced to the subject's own accountCritics argue the theory over-generalizes lower-class youth as uniformly delinquent, underestimates individual variation, and that empirical support for a distinct, oppositional delinquent subculture has been mixed. 1 Connections
Critiqued Here
Sykes and Matza argue most delinquents hold broadly conventional values and merely neutralize them temporarily, challenging Cohen's picture of a wholly separate, inverted delinquent subculture.
Source Wikipedia: Techniques of Neutralization
Developed By
Source Wikipedia: Albert K. Cohen
Source Wikipedia: Lloyd Ohlin
Source Wikipedia: Marvin Wolfgang
Source Wikipedia: Richard Cloward
Informed By
Cohen built his account of status frustration on Merton's strain framework, applied to working class boys measured against middle class standards.
Source Wikipedia: Albert K. Cohen
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Albert K. Cohen
Work sectionQuote, Work section
In his 1955 work, Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang, Cohen wrote about delinquent gangs and suggested in his theoretical discussion how such gangs attempted to 'replace' society's common norms and values with their own sub-cultures.
Wikipedia: Subcultural Theory
Opening sectionQuote, Opening section
certain groups or subcultures in society have values and attitudes that are conducive to crime and violence.
Wikipedia: Techniques of Neutralization
Wikipedia: Lloyd Ohlin
Developed By: Lloyd Ohlin, Life and career sectionQuote, Developed By: Lloyd Ohlin, Life and career section
Together with fellow sociologist Richard A. Cloward, Ohlin wrote Delinquency and Opportunity: A Theory of Delinquent Gangs
Wikipedia: Marvin Wolfgang
Developed By: Marvin Wolfgang, Biography sectionQuote, Developed By: Marvin Wolfgang, Biography section
he completed The Subculture of Violence: Towards an Integrated Theory in Criminology
Wikipedia: Richard Cloward
Developed By: Richard Cloward, Early life sectionQuote, Developed By: Richard Cloward, Early life section
Together with fellow sociologist Lloyd Ohlin, Cloward wrote Delinquency and Opportunity: A Theory of Delinquent Gangs
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