Cloward and Ohlin expanded on strain theories by proposing three deviant subcultures that form based on unequal access to legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures. Criminal subcultures provide apprenticeships in crime. Conflict subcultures lack access to both structures and engage in gang violence. Retreatist subcultures fail at both and focus on drug abuse. They argue people enter different subcultures depending on their access to illegitimate opportunities rather than just strain alone.

1. Subcultural Strain Theories 2

2. Lesson Objectives
• Recap Cohen’s Status Frustration and
Alternative Status Hierarchy explanations of
crime
• Introduce Cloward and Ohlin’s theory of crime
committed by young people
• Evaluate this subcultural theory

3. Last Lesson Recap
• What reasons are there for young men
committing more crimes than any other group?
• What is Status Frustration and why does it
occur?
• How does Alternative Status Hierarchy explain
delinquency?
• What are some of the evaluation points of
Cohen’s theory?

4. Cloward and Ohlin: 3 subcultures
• Agree with Merton that WC youths are
denied legitimate opportunities to achieve
and that deviance stems from the response
to this.
• However not everyone adapts to lack of
legitimate opportunities by turning to
innovation (utilitarian crime). Some resort
to violence, others to drugs

5. The key reasons for these differences is not only unequal access to the
legitimate opportunity structure, but unequal access to illegitimate
opportunity structures e.g. not everyone who fails at school can
become a successful safecracker
Can you take my son
under your wing? I
want him to know
everything there is to
know about
protection
racketeering.
Peoples’ opportunities to be deviant are different: not everyone gets
the same chances to be crooks; some have better opportunities to
enter into a criminal career, particularly if they have access to a
criminal subculture.

6. Depending on their access to the illegitimate opportunity structure,
young people can enter into one of three deviant subcultures:
Criminal subcultures are established and organized criminal networks
which provide a learning environment for young criminals from criminal
role models. They are largely concerned with utilitarian crime that
derives financial rewards.

7. Conflict subcultures develop in areas of limited access to either the
legitimate or the illegitimate opportunity structures.
There is little organized adult crime to provide an apprenticeship in
criminality
These are usually areas of high turnover of population and have little
social unity or informal social control.
Gang violence is a predominant response.

8. Retreatist subcultures have failed to succeed in both the
legitimate and illegitimate opportunity structures and are
therefore double failures.
Their activities centre mainly around illegal drug abuse.
And we’re too soft
and stupid to be
I’ve no qualifications,
gangsters. So we just
no job and no future
get wasted instead.
in the normal world...

9. What similarities and differences are
there between Cloward’s and Ohlin’s
retreatist subculture and Merton’s
idea of a retreatist adaptation

10. • Members of different types of deviant subculture might engage in
different acts of deviant behaviour.
• In small groups, discuss which of the following offences you think
would be most likely to be committed by members of ‘criminal’,
‘conflict’ or ‘retreatist’ subcultures.
• Are there some offences that might be committed by members of
all three subcultures?
Vandalism hooliganism
illegal possession of knives street fighting
using ‘crack’ cocaine theft from shops
car theft burglary
illegal possession of guns dealing in stolen goods
robbery with violence murder
taking ecstasy joy riding
dealing in drugs

11. Evaluation
 Like Merton and Cohen, Cloward and Ohlin ignore
crimes of the wealthy and the wider power structure
and over predict the amount of W/C crime.
 Unlike Cohen they try to explain different types of
W/C deviance in terms of different subcultures.
However they draw the boundaries too sharply
between the different types. Actual subcultures
often show characteristics of more than one ‘type’
(can you think of any examples?)

12. Like Cohen’s theory, Cloward and Ohlin’s is a reactive
one- they explain deviant subcultures as forming in
reaction to the failure to achieve mainstream success
goals. This wrongly assumes that everyone starts off
sharing these same goals
Walter Miller- lower class has its own independent
subculture separate from mainstream culture with its
own values. This culture does not value success in the
first place so its members are not frustrated by failure. He
agrees that deviance is widespread in lower class but
argues this arises out of an attempt to achieve their own
goals not mainstream ones (focal concerns)
among middle class people

13. Burke identifies criticisms of their work also:
1) the idea of the criminal subculture is based on
gangs in Chicago in the 1920s and 30s so isn’t
particularly applicable to modern British society;
2) the idea of retreatist subcultures is a ‘grossly
simplistic’ explanation of drug abuse which is
actually really common

14. What have Recent Strain
Theorists suggested?
Page 78

15. Overview of Key Sociologists
• Create a glossary of what the key sub
cultural sociologists have said.
• Summaries each of them in no more than
25 words.

16. Use subcultural explanations to
explain
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/
02/2007_26_wed.shtml

17. MIC: Gang Leader for A Day

18. 1. Summarise using the key words below:
KEY CONCEPT: legitimate opportunity
structure; illegitimate opportunity structure;
criminal subcultures; conflict subcultures;
retreatist subcultures; utilitarian crime;
non-utilitarian crime.
2. Revision Sheet

19. Quick Check Q’s Page 79