uestion 21---------

Assess sociological contributions to our

understanding of delinquency.

his question is asking for a critical assessment of sociological explanations of

delinquency. Its wording should tell you that sociological accounts of delinquency are
problematic and therefore easy to criticise. In general, crime and deviance essays are popular
among students, but you must make sure that you link your answer to the question.

One of the major sociological contributions to our understanding The essay launches straight in
of delinquency can be found in Cohen's work, Delinquent Boys. with Cohen's work on delinquency
For Cohen, delinquency is a collective and frequently non- subculture. It offers a detailed
utilitarian deviant act found among lower-working-class boys. but short explanation of his
According to Cohen, all boys aspire to the middle-class value of contribution to the understanding
success, such as is achieved through educational qualifications. of delinquency. You could spend
However, the evidence suggests that it is middle-class boys and longer on Cohen but this would
'respectable' working-class boys who mainly achieve educational be at the cost of other material
success. In comparison, boys from the lower working class more and would limit your range of
often than not under-achieve in education. Cohen argues that contributions.
lower-working-class boys are unable to compete in the education
system because they are culturally deprived. This results in 'status
frustration' for them. One way in which they solve this problem
of 'status frustration' is to react collectively by turning middle-
class values upside down, and awarding status for acts which
oppose middle-class culture. In other words, this delinquent
subculture reverses society's norms and values. Within the delin-
quent subculture, status is achieved through behaviour such as
fighting, vandalism, truanting and drug-taking, in other words
through general anti-social behaviour. Hence for Cohen, delin-
quency is the result of a reaction to lack of status in society.

Support for Cohen can be found in Hargreaves' interactionist work

in a British secondary modern school. According to Hargreaves,

89
Question 2
In this second paragraph I have
used of the work of Hargreaves to
support Cohen. Again, note how
concise this paragraph is. It would
be easy to write reams about
triple failures but this would not
necessarily attract any more
marks.
The essay now moves away from
supporting evidence to critical
evidence.
90
lower-working-class pupils in the school were labelled as 'triple
failures'. The boys had failed the eleven-plus, were in the bottom
stream, and were at the bottom of the bottom stream. The teachers
tended to see these pupils as 'worthless louts'. Hargreaves argued
that this resulted in the emergence of an anti-school peer group
in which anti-school delinquency was awarded status. Therefore,
for Hargreaves, delinquency is the result of negative labelling.
However, Box disagrees with Cohen. He claims that lower-
working-class boys do not have the same middle-class values as
the school, but the way they are seen as failures leads to resent-
ment. For Box, this resentment can result in the lower-working-
class boys turning against authority, and consequently forming
delinquent subcultures.
Miller also criticises Cohen's argument that delinquency is caused
by 'status frustration'. For Miller, delinquency is the result of the
different and distinctive culture of the lower working class.
According to Miller, lower-working-class life is characterised by a
set of 'focal concerns', that is areas of interest and involvement
which consist of: being in trouble rather than out of it; being tough
and masculine; being smart and street-wise; enjoying exciting
activities; being free; and having a fatalistic attitude, which
manifests itself in a belief in luck or chance - if you get caught,
that's just the way it goes. Miller claims that these focal concerns
are likely to lead lower-working-class boys into trouble with the
authorities. The values within this subculture are exaggerated
because of status insecurity.
Bordua claims that for Miller's portrayal of lower-working-
class life to be accurate, the whole class must be cut off and
isolated from the rest of society, and social agencies and institu-
tions have no impact on it. It may be that Bordua seriously under-
estimates the diversity of values, beliefs, and life styles in today's
multicultural society. In addition, it is difficult to demonstrate that
lower-war king-class boys either accept or reject middle-class
success goals. Two British studies, Learning to Labour by Willis,
and Schooling the Smash Street Kids by Corrigan, seem to suggest
that they do not share middle-class goals and values in the first
place.
Willis does not accept Cohen's theory of delinquency. His
study, which combines interactionism and Marxism, shows that
the lower-working-class boys are already aware. of their com-
parative failure. In addition, they are not looking for success
along middle-class lines. This rejection of middle-class norms
and values results in a subculture which is in opposition to the
culture of the school. The boys do not attend school in order to
achieve, but rather they go to school to have a 'laft' (laugh).
This behaviour which is at odds with the school is perceived as
Exam Success Guide
 delinquent, but may in fact be a natural response to the boys'
position in the class structure.

In a similar way, Corrigan shows that football hooliganism as a In this paragraph, I have used
form of delinquency can be a response by young lower-working- Corrigan's work on football
class males to the alienation of both school and dead-end working- hooliganism to support the
class jobs. Football hooliganism is a form of behaviour which subcultural approach to delin-
enables them to do something worthwhile, in that they can quency. However, the same
achieve status from their actions. Football hooliganism is similar paragraph also criticises Cohen.
to truanting and other deviant behaviour in that it gains respect Note how I have used Corrigan's
from other boys. However, Corrigan can be criticised. Evidence own example of football
suggests that football hooliganism is not just a lower-working- hooliganism to evaluate his work.
class pastime. Recently evidence from television documentaries I don't know much about football,
has demonstrated that in some cases football hooliganism is but logic dictates that the
highly organised and involves males with 'respectable' middle- average lower-working-class boy
class jobs in the City. Furthermore, it is doubtful whether many can't afford to travel across the
lower-working-class youths can afford to travel abroad to watch world to watch a game of soccer.
football matches and participate in football hooliganism in
foreign countries.
Matza argues that these theories of delinquency subculture
tend to present delinquency as a widespread, collective, lower-
working-class activity, whereas in reality many delinquent acts
are committed by individual youths and not necessarily by groups
of lower-working-class youths. Matza also argues that lower-work-
ing-class youths do not regularly take part in delinquent activity,
rather they drift in and out of delinquent ventures. Therefore,
unlike some of the other theories concerned with juvenile delin-
quency, Matza sees delinquency as a voluntary activity and not
a way of life which is caused by social forces or subcultural
norms.

All of the theories and writers that have been discussed can be Chambliss' work on crime can be
criticised for ignoring middle-class delinquency and female delin- applied to a number of crime and
quency. Chambliss shows how similar delinquent behaviour deviance essays, so make sure
within groups of working-class youths and middle-class youths is you know about the
interpreted differently by the agencies of social control. Chambliss 'roughnecks' and the 'saints'.
compared the criminal activities of a group of working-class
youths, whom he called the 'roughnecks', and the criminal activ-
ities of a group of middle-class youths, whom he referred to as
the 'saints'. Chambliss was interested in the way their behaviour
was seen and consequently labelled by the police. Chambliss
found that despite the fact that the 'saints' engaged in more
delinquent behaviour than the 'roughnecks', the 'roughnecks'
attracted more attention from the agencies of social control.
Meanwhile the 'saints' did not get as much as a parking ticket
between them. Chambliss can be supported by applying Becker's

A-Level Sociology: Essays 91

Question 21 _
work. Becker claims that if a fight occurs in a working-class area,
the police are more likely to label this as a show of delinquency.
However, if a fight occurs in a middle-class area, the police are
more likely to see this as a demonstration of 'high spirits'.

The final paragraph comments
on the lack of explanations for
female delinquency. Again this is a
criticism which can be used in a
number of crime and deviance
essays. Don't worry if you make
the same evaluation point in a
number of essays. Some examples
just have more uses than others.
Finally, all the above material can be criticised for ignoring female
delinquency. It can be argued that if Cohen is correct, then just
as much criminality should be seen amongst lower-working-class
girls. Recent studies on female crime by sociologists such as
Campbell, suggest that there has been a rise in female delin-
quency. However, as Smart argues, while sociology and crimi-
nology are dominated by men and are about the study of men,
much female crime will continue to go uncovered.

This essay question is quite straightforward. The only problem is that there is so much information
available that you will have to choose what to include and what to exclude. This is not the easiest
thing to do when you are under pressure, so you need to practise this skill. Crime and deviance
is arguably one of the most interesting areas on the sociology syllabus. It is also one of the most
popular. This means that some students know more about crime and deviance than other topics.
Do not let this lead you into spending more time on crime and deviance at the expense of other
topics in the examination. You really need to spend an equal amount of time on each essay.

Related questions

1 'Crime is mainly a working-class, male and urban phenomenon.' Discuss.

2 Why do delinquent subcultures develop?

3 How have functionalist theories of crime and deviance explained youth crime?