Subcultural Strain Theories Notes

Status frustration - being dissatisfied with your role/position in society, and frustrated at your inability to change it.

Utilitarian - crimes that make the criminal happier or done with the intention of benefiting others e.g) mother stealing food to feed her children

Inverted values - values opposite to those of mainstream society e.g) anti-school subcultures celebrate truancy, not attendance

Illegitimate opportunity structures - criminal opportunities and criminal goals to achieve

Cultural transmission - theory that some neighbourhoods develop criminal culture that is transmitted to generation to generation

Differential association - theory that deviance is a behaviour that is learned through social interactions with other deviants

Social disorganisation - theory that instability and the breakdown of community bonds causes crime

Institutional anomie - economy undermines all other institutions and the pursuit of the American Dream causes anomie

Subcultural Strain Theories

Subcultural Strain Theories