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choco1433 choco1433
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Describe Albert K. Cohen's middle-class measuring rod theory and the debate centered on including his theory in the context of subcultural theories.
Textbook 
Criminological Theory: A Brief Introduction

Criminological Theory: A Brief Introduction


Edition: 4th
Authors:
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  • Subcultural theory
  • Focuses on lower-class delinquent gangs
  • Asserts lower class delinquent boys have adopted values that differs from middle class
  • Cohen says the purpose of a gang is to oppose conformity because their learning experience of lower-class males leaves them ill prepared to compete in a world gauged by a middle-class measuring rod.
  • Deficiencies of lower-class youth are most noticeable in the classroom, where working-class youth are frequently overshadowed and belittled by their middle-class counterparts.
  • Cohen theorizes turning to membership in a delinquent gang is a normal adaptation to status frustration resulting from clashing cultures.
  • Cohen cites the middle-class measuring rod of the school system as the turning point when lower-class boys stop accepting middle-class values.
  • Cohen lists aggression, toughness, and hedonism as important.
  • Debate on whether his theory stands alone as a cultural accounting of crime or is more of an extension and synthesis of previously established theories
    • Proposed the answer to this debate lies in examining his writings, but also his academic background
    • Interests were molded by Merton and Sutherland's interests of strain and differential association theories
    • Due to these influences, his work is sometimes omitted from reviews of subculture literature and suggested to focus on internal social conditions of subcultures, culminating in a strain theory dependent on social structural forces, instead of a more appropriate focus on the essence of a subculture, ideas.
    • Sometimes discussed in the context of strain rather than subculture
    • Still remains a founding pioneer of subcultural theory


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choco1433
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I appreciate what you did here, answered it right Smiling Face with Open Mouth
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Smart ... Thanks!
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This helped my grade so much Perfect
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