Albert Cohen was born on June 15, 1918, and is an American criminologist who has been widely acknowledged for his subcultural theory on gangs. He is also the author on a book dealing with the theory titled Delinquent Boys: Culture of the Gang. His theory itself was aimed at confronting the issue of delinquency, questions that he felt hadn’t been properly researched or answered by other theories. Some of these questions include why exactly delinquency takes place specifically in gangs? Why are working class youths attracted to a life filled with delinquent behavior? And another questions Mr. Cohen had was asking why so many delinquent acts are violent and mean spirited just for the sake of it, when they don’t even offer any financial benefit to the person causing the acts. Cohen came up with the idea that there wasn’t necessarily a general consensus that people shared in terms of values, but rather subcultural values that are shared by specific …show more content…
groups, mainly working class male teenagers. His theory is therefore aimed at explaining the different forms of delinquency that don’t serve a purpose, and almost appear to be carried out without thought, and for no real reason.
In developing his theory Cohen challenged others that had come before him, specifically the ideas of Robert Merton. Viewing Merton’s theories to be too generalized in terms of culture, Cohen decided that if there was first a dominant culture, there must also subcultures, and that subcultures form as direct responses to dominant cultures. He targeted young males with his theory since he determined that subcultures are most focused within the school. Going back to the Strain Theory that Merton and others had developed before him, he argued that it is felt more by the youth than any other group, especially the working class youth. And that it’s at school where the conflict between the working and middle classes is harshest. The cultural values most people have in America stem from the middle class, and are then forced upon the working
class. In terms of why youths take part in acts that won’t benefit them, Cohen theorizes that it is a misplaced attempt to gain status, instead of material wealth. This is caused again by the values of the middle class, which place those in the working class at a disadvantage, as they don’t have the same means to achieve status. They then suffer from increasing levels of frustration, and slowly gravitates towards others in their area or schools that suffer from the same, which creates the delinquent subculture. They fail to meet the standards of the middle class, so they create their own instead to counter them. Vandalism and violence don’t automatically lead to youths becoming rich, but these acts give them a sense of self-fulfillment or status, which is shared by others in their respective gangs. Therefore it is somewhat ironic, as had working class youths not felt the need to meet the standards of the middle class, the gang subculture may not have come into being, if one chooses to subscribe to Cohen’s theory at least. It presents the problem of countering the actions of any particular gang, as if Cohen is correct, as long as the values of the middle class remain the norm, gangs will keep popping up and filling with members. It therefore traps society in a cycle and requires it to completely change itself to end the cycle.
This model’s theorists argue that abnormal behavior is best understood in light of the social and cultural forces that influence an individual; as such they address the norms of and people’s roles in society. When Kody was a young boy, society’s cultural forces that had the biggest impact on his life were gangs. Gangs were all around him and because they were all around him, gangs became a normal part of life as they were a big part of south central Las Angeles’s culture. Culture refers to the set of values, attitudes, beliefs, history, and behaviors shared by a group of people and communicated from one generation to the next. There is no doubt in my mind after reading this book and what I have heard about south central Las Angeles that there is a lack of normal values that the majority of the United States shares.
This book review covers Policing Gangs in America by Charles Katz and Vincent Webb. Charles Katz has a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice, while Vincent Webb has a Ph.D. in Sociology, making both qualified to conduct and discuss research on gangs. Research for Policing Gangs in America was gathered in four cities across the American Southwest; Inglewood, California, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona. This review will summarize and discuss the main points of each chapter, then cover the relationship between the literature and class discussions in Introduction to Policing and finally it will note the strengths and weaknesses of book.
Over the past 60 years there has been a recent phenomenon in the development and rise of gangs and gang violence. This is exceptionally apparent in South Central Los Angeles where the Bloods and the Crips have taken control of the social structure and created a new type of counter culture. Poverty in this area is an enormous problem caused by a shear lack of jobs; but just because there is a lack of jobs doesn’t mean that there will be a lack of bills to pay, so sometimes selling drugs in order to keep a roof over your head seems like the most logical option. Crime often times flourishes in these regions because the inconvenient truth is; crime pays. Senator Tom Hayden stated “It’s been defined as a crime problem and a gang problem but it’s really an issue of no work and dysfunctional schools.” this statement is in fact true, but with an exception it is a more broad issue than just involving school, and lack of jobs but goes beyond into social structure as a whole and more specifically the judicial system, this can all be supported by three sociologists Chambliss, Anderson, and Durkheim.
The level of deviance might be justify best through Cultural deviance theory. Labeling Theory might offer a small explanation to why there has been a tremendous increase in youths joining gangs in the inner city in connection with release of gang leader. It is extremely hard to test Labeling Theory to the gang leaders perception once reintegrated back in to society. Labeling Theory can only be tested through the recidivism rates of the gang leaders. It gives no real understanding to why one’s perception of self only lead to negative results such as
Gangs have been a point of concern for states and societies around the world for centuries. Youth gangs are not exempt from that same categorization and have operated for the same amount of time worldwide. Over the last century however, a proliferation of youth gangs has been witnessed, especially among Hispanic youths immigrating into the United States. Researchers and scholars have offered multiple theories as to why youths, and Hispanics youths in particular integrate themselves into gang organizations. Three schools of thought arise when conducting gang integration research. Rational Economics Theory1 proposes that youths, and all individuals, join gangs for financial and material benefit. Cultural Deviance Theory considers youth gang members as exposed to a lower class subculture that rationalizes and even promotes crime, delinquency and gang membership, contrasting to the “normal” set of prescribed values and culture in more civilized society. Acculturation Theory argues that youths join gangs as a means to be acculturated by ethnically or compositionally similar peers, whether as a response to ethnic marginalization by members of the host country or inability to acculturate to their new home.
Prison gangs were created by inmates as a way to protect themselves from other inmates. Each prison gang has their reasons for existing. There are five prison gangs in the United States. These gangs are as follow: The Aryan Brotherhood, The Black Guerilla Family, Texas Syndicate, Mexican Mafia, and Lanuestra Familia. They all have similar beliefs, meanings of their tattoos, how gangs impact their lives and society, and the challenges they bring the prison system in order to decrease gang population.
The presence of gang violence has been a long lasting problem in Philadelphia. Since the American Revolution, gangs have been overpopulating the streets of Philadelphia (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). Most gangs in history have been of lower class members of society, and they often are immigrants into the U.S (Teen Gangs, 1996). Gangs provided lower class teens to have an opportunity to bond with other lower class teens. However over time, the original motive of being in a gang has changed. In the past, gangs used to provide an escape for teens to express themselves, let out aggression, and to socialize with their peers. It was also an opportunity for teens to control their territory and fit in (Johnson, Muhlhausen, 2005). In the past, authorities would only focus on symptoms of gang violence and not the root. They would focus on arresting crime members instead of preventing gang violence. Gangs are beginning to expand from inner-city blo...
Tobin, Kimberly. Gangs: An Individual and Group Perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2008. Print.
Many have attempted to explain gang involvement in today's society. However, there is an underlying activity of youth joining gangs that does not seem to have enough media coverage or thorough explanations. As the name suggests, youth gang membership is about the juvenile population creating and joining gangs. Research indicates that youth gang membership exists in contemporary north America (Bernburg et al. 2006; aLilly et al. 2011; Maclure and Sotelo 2004; Sims 1997; Wiley et al. 2013; Yoder et al. 2003). This paper will examine the factors associated with youth gang membership using Karl Marx's conflict theory and labeling theory in comparison. Although conflict theory helps explain why a troublesome economy and coming from a low-socioeconomic status contributes to gang involvement, the theory has its limitations. On the other hand, labeling theory is unable to fully explain youth gang involvement based on the aforementioned factors. That being said, it can give a better explanation based on the factor of government intervention in the lives of citizens such as the context of stop-and-frisk which lead to unwarranted searches.
Juvenile Delinquent Gangs As a kid I could remember walking to school every day. While on the way to school, there was always a group of kids sanding outside of the school walking away. These kids dressed differently and they all wore the same type of clothes. It wasn’t until years later that I was told to stay away from them because they were gangsters.
According to the text “Juvenile Delinquency: The Core” the social structure theory associates juvenile delinquency rates to socioeconomic structure conditions, for example poor communities, families that are usually unemployed, families that have a continuous cycle of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), single parent households, families with incarcerated fathers, sons and even moms and daughters. Some of these children are raised by grandparents or placed in the foster care system. Many young people in these communities are parents themselves – babies raising babies. This I know because this describes many of the youth in my community.
By drawing from works of scholars looking to define gangs, Papachristos and Kirk (2006) devote a great amount of attention to theories of social disorganization. In their research, a gang is broadly defined as “a geographically, temporally and socially “interstitial” group that forms in response to the disintegration of norms and customs and the consequent...
Many stereotypes of gangs have been fabricated. The problem is that a majority of gang members do not fit these stereotypes, which, in turn, makes it hard for the to be caught (Klein). Traditionally they organize their group around a specific neighborhood, school or housing projec...
In the article “Prevalence and Development of Child Delinquency” written by Howard N. Snyder, he explains that “Older juveniles often influence younger children. In addition, studies have shown that juveniles who associate with deviant peers are more likely to be involved in delinquent behavior and arrested at a younger age than those who do not associate with such deviant juveniles” (Snyder 36). Children that are abused and/or associate themselves with delinquents run a greater risk of developing delinquent behavior themselves. According to "Breaking the Cycle of Violence: A Rational Approach to At-Risk Youth." Written by Judy Briscoe, “Peer rejection may also influence child and adolescent delinquency by inducing the rejected child to associate with deviant peer groups and gangs. Gang membership provides a ready source of co-offenders for juvenile delinquency and reflects the greatest degree of deviant peer influence on offending. Also, youth tend to join gangs at younger ages than in the past, which leads to an increased number of youthful offenders.” (Briscoe 8) Although children tend to have the same values and beliefs as their parents, their different experiences and influences while growing up shape their beliefs and their view of the world, which has a direct impact on their ability to make rational decisions. It’s possible that if a child had
According to Siegel (2013) Albert Cohen developed the theory of delinquent subcultures in his classic 1995 book, Delinquent Boys. Cohen believes that the delinquent behavior of lower class youth actually goes against the norms and values of middle-class U. S. culture. These youths experience what he calls status frustration due to social conditions that enable them to achieve success legitimately. As a result of this social conflict the youths join gangs and become involved in behavior that is “nonutilitarian, malicious, and negativistic. This gang subculture possesses a value system directly opposed to that of the larger society. Their norms of society are completely opposite. Their conduct is right by the standards of their subculture because it is wrong by the norms of the larger culture. According to Cohen, the development of the delinquent subculture is a consequence of socialization practices found in the ghetto or inner-city environment. Cohen suggests that lower-class parents are not able to teach their children the necessary skills for entering the dominant middle-class culture. As a result these youths lack basic skills needed to achieve social and economic success in the demanding U. S. society. Apart from proper rearing they also lack education needed to build a solid knowledge or socialization foundation. Some of the consequences of these deprivations include developmental handicaps, poor speech and communication skills, and inability to delay gratification (Siegel, 2013).