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16 J.L. & Admin. Sci. 135 (2021)
Subcultural Theories of Delinquency and Crime

handle is hein.journals/jladsc16 and id is 135 raw text is: Journal of Law and Administrative Sciences No.16/2021 SUBCULTURAL THEORIES OF DELINQUENCY AND CRIME Lecturer Adriana luliana STANCU, PhD. Faculty of Judicial, Social and Political Sciences, Dunarea de Jos University of Galati, Romania adriana.tudorache@ugal.ro Abstract Strain theorists explain criminal behaviour as a result of the frustrations suffered by lower-class individuals deprived of legitimate means to reach their goals. Cultural deviance theorists assume that individuals become criminal by learning the criminal values of the groups to which they belong. In conforming to their own group standards, these people break the laws of the dominant culture. These two perspectives are the foundation for subcultural theory, which emerged in the mid-1950s and held criminologists attention for over a decade. 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. Subcultures may form among members of racial and ethnic minorities, among prisoners, among occupational groups, among ghetto dwellers. Subcultures exist within a larger society, not apart from it. They therefore share some of its values. Nevertheless, the lifestyles of their members are significantly different from those of individuals in the dominant culture. Keywords: subcultural, delinquency, criminal, behaviour. Subcultural theories of delinquency and crime Subcultural theories in criminology have been developed to account for delinquency among lower-class males, especially for one of its most important expressions - the teenage gang. According to subcultural theorists, delinquent subcultures, like all subcultures, emerge in response to special problems that members of the dominant culture do not face. Theories developed by Albert Cohen and by Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin are extensions of the strain, social disorganization, and differential association theories. They explain why delinquent subcultures emerge in the first place (strain), why they take a particular form (social disorganization), and how they are passed on from one generation to the next (differential association). [1] The explanations of delinquency developed by Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti and by Walter Miller are somewhat different from those mentioned above. These 135