Good evening, all! Please join me tomorrow, 1pm, cst, to discuss development of Criminal Subcultures.
What is a classic coming of age film best discusses the formation of a criminal / gang subculture in response?
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Good afternoon, friends, thank you for joining me this afternoon as we continue our look at cultural deviance & the development of subcultures.
What subculture that you participate is most influential to you?
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory
We are going to start class with quite a few thinking challenges, as I want to know YOUR opinions, to get ready to weigh in ...
today we will be discussing Formation of Subcultures
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory
What a LOVELY day for us here in the Chicago area. Here's a softball. Who's ready for Fall?
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Let's do a bit of a SUBCULTURE SELF-ASSESSMENT in looking at the way that various forces shape our personality, outlook, values, & development.
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory #Chapter6
SUBCULTURE SELF-ASSESSMENT: How does your neighborhood shape you?
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory #Chapter6
SUBCULTURE SELF-ASSESSMENT:
How does your family shape you?
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory #Chapter6
SUBCULTURE SELF-ASSESSMENT:
How does your job shape you?
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory #Chapter6
SUBCULTURE SELF-ASSESSMENT:
How does your faith or spirituality shape you?
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory #Chapter6
SUBCULTURE SELF-ASSESSMENT:
How does your political party shape you?
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory #Chapter6
SUBCULTURE SELF-ASSESSMENT:
How does your income shape you?
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory #Chapter6
SUBCULTURE SELF-ASSESSMENT:
How does your ethnicity shape you?
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory #Chapter6
SUBCULTURE SELF-ASSESSMENT:
How does your nationality shape you?
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory #Chapter6
Were those trick questions? A little bit ... as each could have had an all of the above option
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory
Subcultural theories look at how our life experiences and immediate surrounds shape our views, attitudes, and ambitions in life
#CRJ105 #Criminology #SubcultureTheory
More specifically, sub-cultural theories in criminology were developed to account for delinquency among lower-class males, especially for one of its most important expressions, the teenage gang
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #Subcultures
Delinquent subcultures, like all subcultures, emerge in response to special problems that members of the "dominant" culture do not face
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #Subcultures
Of course, we do have to pause to consider what factors influence the concept of "dominant" culture. What factor do you think is most influential today?
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #Subcultures
A subculture is a subdivision within the dominant culture that has its own norms, beliefs, and values.
Subcultures typically emerge when people in similar circumstances find themselves isolated from the mainstream and band together for mutual support
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
Increased gang activity spurred much of the investigation into socialization and the power of social grouping
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
THINKING CHALLENGE: Are you familiar with the concept of the "middle class measuring rod"
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
The "middle class measuring rod" implies that all youth, of all income levels, are compared against the values of the middle class for that of academic & life success.
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
Lower-class children are evaluated by middle-class values which may or may not reflect their own values and upbringing.
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
THINKING CHALLENGE: What are some values or behaviors that might vary across social economic status?
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
THINKING CHALLENGE: The values & behaviors of some groups may clash with conventional "middle-class rules" in terms of attitudes about ...
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
Albert Cohen explained how the delinquent subculture arises, where it is found within the social structure, and why it has the particular characteristics that it does
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Most survey respondents stated they thought the 1991 drama, Boyz In The Hood, best illustrated how criminal subcultures can arise. What makes this movie so good?
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
What is the result of the #middleclassmeasuringrod?
For many lower class youth, they experience status frustration
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
By the middle-class #measuringrod, lower-class children fall far short of the standards they must meet if they are to compete successfully with middle-class children.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
THINKING CHALLENGE: Is today's discussion about respecting versus fearing the police an example of a middle class measuring rod?
How so?
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Subcultural theorists present schools as especially problematic for the 'middle class measuring rod'
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Cohen argues that they experience status frustration and strain, to which they respond by adopting one of three roles:
~corner boy,
~college boy,
~or delinquent boy.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
The corner boy hangs out in the neighborhood with his peer group, spending the day in some group activity, such as gambling or athletic competition. Most lower-class boys become corner boys.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
There are very few “college boys.” These boys continually strive to live up to middle-class standards, but their chances for success are limited because of academic and social hardships.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
“Delinquent boys” band together to form a subculture in which they can define status in ways that to them seem attainable.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Cohen claims that even though these lower-class youths set up their own norms, they have internalized the norms of the dominant class and feel anxious when they go against those norms.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
To deal with this conflict, they resort to #reactionformation, a mechanism that relieves anxiety through the process of rejecting with abnormal intensity what one wants but cannot obtain.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Reaction Formation argues that young men, excluded from the benefits of middle class society, actively, purposefully act out against those values as a self-defense for self-preservation against that isolation
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
THINKING CHALLENGE: But don't ALL kids feel isolated, misunderstood, and excluded from some aspect of the "mainstream"?
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Cohen’s theory does not explain why most delinquents eventually become law-abiding even though their position in the class structure remains relatively fixed.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
THINKING CHALLENGE: Does this look at subcultures account for the "aging-out" phenomenon?
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Criminological researchers generally agree that Cohen’s theory is responsible for major advances in research on delinquency
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance
Among them are researchers who have found a relationship between delinquency and social status in the society. Much evidence also supports Cohen’s assumption that lower-class children perform more poorly in school than middle-class children
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THINKING CHALLENGE: Does social status affect in school performance?
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But critics ask an important question:
The behavior of delinquent boys is a deliberate response to middle-class opinion ...
... BUT ...
what if the boys do not care about the opinions of middle-class people?
#CRJ105 #CulturalDeviance
Cohen’s theory answers a number of questions left unresolved by the strain. Yet his theory does not explain why most delinquents eventually become law-abiding even though their position in the class structure remains relatively fixed
#CRJ105 #CulturalDeviance
Gerardo Lopez grew up in gang territory in Los Angeles, California, and was just 14 years old when he joined MS-13, the notorious Salvadorean gang. Why did he join and why did he leave?
ted.com/talks/gerardo_…
#CRJ105 #CulturalDeviance
Can you help me? This question remains as a recurring theme across Walz life from gangster to youth worker. Once he asked it - now others ask it of him
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Like Cohen’s theory, the theory of differential opportunity developed by Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin combines strain, differential association, and social disorganization concepts.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Both theories suggest that lack of means causes frustration for lower-class youths, and that criminal behavior is learned and culturally transmitted
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Cloward and Ohlin diasgree, however, that lower-class delinquents remain goal-oriented.
The kind of delinquent behavior they engage in depends on the illegitimate opportunities available to them
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
In areas where conventional and illegitimate values and behavior are integrated by a close connection of illegitimate and legitimate businesses, “criminal gangs” emerge.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
According to Cloward & Ohlin, "criminal gangs" are groups of youth willing to innovate, improvise, hustle to gain social, economic advantage
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An in-depth look at the formation of Chicago's Black P Stones: #CRJ105
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Neighborhoods characterized by instability, Cloward & Ohlin argue, offer few opportunities to get ahead in organized criminal activities, gives rise to “conflict gangs,” to gain a reputation for toughness and destructive violence
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance
Cloward & Ohlin describe retreatist gangs as double failures, they have not been successful in the legitimate world and have been equally unsuccessful in the illegitimate worlds of organized criminal activity and violence-oriented gangs.
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Empirical evidence suggests that gang behavior is more versatile and involves a wider range of criminal and noncriminal acts than the patterns outlined by Cloward and Ohlin.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
An excellent follow-up resource on some of the specific details of Chicago gangs: chicagoganghistory.com
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
I also highly recommend @frontlinepbs documentary "The Interrupters", featuring @AmeenaMatthews
pbs.org/wgbh/frontline……
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
What connections can you make between formation of subcultures and the attempt to interrupt the transmission of violence?
pbs.org/wgbh/frontline……
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
The first of Cloward and Ohlin’s assumptions, that blocked opportunities are related to delinquency, has had mixed support
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
One of the main criticisms is that their theory is class-oriented. If, as Cloward and Ohlin claim, delinquency is a response to blocked opportunities,
How can one explain middle-class delinquency?
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
THINKING CHALLENGE: Does America have a subculture of violence?
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
Violence is the means used to gain status in conflict gangs. Conventional society’s recognition of the “worst” gangs becomes a mark of prestige, perpetuating the high standards of their members.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Some subcultures behavior norms are dictated by a value system that demands the use of force or violence. Subcultures that adhere to conduct norms conducive to violence are referred to as subcultures of violence
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Violence is not used in all situations, but it is frequently an expected response. #Violence is not considered antisocial. Members of this subculture feel no guilt about their aggression.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
The subculture of violence thesis has also generated a line of empirical research that looks at regional differences in levels of violent crime
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Though empirical evidence remains inconclusive, the subculture of violence theory is supported by the distribution of violent crime in American society.
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
All the theorists examined thus far explain criminal and delinquent behavior in terms of subcultural values that emerge and are perpetuated from one generation to the next in lower-class urban slums.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Miller has identified six focal concerns, or areas, to which lower-class males give persistent attention:
~Trouble
~Toughness
~Smartness
~Excitement
~Luck
~Autonomy
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
An obvious question is whether in one’s urban, heterogeneous, secular, technologically based society any isolated pockets of culture are still to be found
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
The pervasiveness of mass advertising, mass transit, and mass communication makes it seem unlikely that an entire class of people could be unaware of the dominant value system
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Criminologists have been disturbed by Miller’s assumption that the lower-class lifestyle is generally focused on illegal activity.
They say Miller disregards the fact that most people in the lower class do conform to conventional norms
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
THINKING CHALLENGE: If lower-class boys are conforming to their own value system, would they suffer guilt or shame when they commit delinquent acts?
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
The new subculture that emerged in the 1980s and continues into the new century combines violence, which has become more vicious than in earlier years, with big business in drug trafficking
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: CRIPS AND BLOODS: Made in America
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
It is estimated that between 50 and 70 percent of gang members own or have access to weapons.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Exploring the link between gun violence and gang activity | Guns in Canada
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Researchers are now focusing more attention on the two types of female gangs—those that are affiliates of male gangs and those that consist of all females.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
In one of the few early studies, done in 1958, Albert Cohen and James Short suggested that female delinquent subcultures, like their male counterparts, were composed of members who had been frustrated in their efforts to achieve conventional goals
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
Anne Campbell published the first major work on the lifestyle of female gang members in New York. Campbell’s findings demonstrate that girls, like boys, join gangs for mutual support, protection, and a sense of belonging
interactive.wbez.org/everyotherhour
Professor studies Twitter threats of girl gang killer in Chicago via @Suntimes
@FrankMainNews
chicago.suntimes.com/2016/6/5/18365…
…
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Most people think of gangs as synonymous with inner-city slums, low-income housing projects, turf wars, and a membership that often comes into conflict with law enforcement. But now the gang lifestyle is moving to suburbia
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Experts have identified several types of suburban gangs.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Delinquent gangs are similar to most inner-city gangs. Criminal activities include physical assaults, theft, burglary, and distribution of illegal drugs.
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Hate gangs, such as skinheads, attach themselves to an ideology that targets racial and ethnic groups. Vandalism, destruction of property, terrorist threats, physical assaults, and even murder are justified by their belief system.
splcenter.org/hate-map
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
ILLINOIS:
splcenter.org/hate-map
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
Satanic gangs are affiliated with controversial satanic cults.
chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archiv…
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS (1996)
Most explanations of middle-class delinquency are extensions of subcultural explanations of lower-class delinquency.
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
The most difficult problem that counselors and street workers face is the power gangs have over their members
#CRJ105 #MoraineValley #CulturalDeviance #Subcultures
Subcultural theory assumes that individuals engage in delinquent or criminal behavior based on the following reasons.
~ Legitimate opportunities for success are blocked
~ Criminal values and norms are learned in lower-class slums
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
Would there be interest in having a BONUS #FridayFeature discussion covering Chicago gangs specifically?
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
If you made it this far in the thread, share a gang movie/podcast/book that you recommend. Any season is good, but I have to STRONGLY urge students to listen to Season 3 of @WBEZ #Motive with @oyousef & @cpicciolini
wbez.org/shows/motive/8…
#CRJ105 #Subcultures
How would you grade today's discussion? As always, I'm eager for follow-up questions, comments, feedback
#CRJ105 #Subcultures #Chapter6 #MoraineValley
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