Albert K Cohen's Theory of Gangs & Deliquent Subculture
APPLICATION OF THE THEORY TO THE ISSUE:
ALBERT K. COHEN'S THEORY OF GANGS AND THE DELINQUENT SUBCULTURE
Albert K.Cohen was the first person that attempted to find out the process of beginning of a delinquent subculture. His perspective has been referred to an integrating theory of several sociological theories such as the Chicago School¡¯s sociologist¡¯s work, Merton¡¯s strain theory, cultural conflict theory and Sutherland¡¯s differential association theory.
In Cohen's book ¡°Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gangs,(1955) it was quite apparent that his work was a product of the 1950's. Having won World War 2 and with the country gradually returning to normalcy, Americans were once again obsessed with the ¡°American Dream.¡± People believed that a prosperous future could be attained by education and employment. Middle-class values that emphasized ambition and material success became dominate, anything otherwise was not accepted as ¡°normal.¡± However, behind this promising climate, the great fear of delinquency was lurking and rising.
During the period of World War 2, juvenile delinquency became one of the most important ¡°home front¡± public issues. This label ¡°juvenile delinquency¡± applied to youthful misbehavior, mostly to lower class and immigrant children. The separation of the ¡°we-they¡± led the middle class to see itself as a far more superior class. Cohen¡¯s subculture theory was one of the post war studies of delinquency. He believed that the history of a deviant act is the history of an interaction process, of which the problem of delinquency is mainly a male phenomenon. Cohen assumed that the subculture was found in the lower class where social control was not strong enough to constrain the delinquency and that lower class boys in particular have not been equipped to deal with the competitive struggle that takes place in middle class institutions. Crime culture existed in certain social groups and the individual learned the values of deviance through participation in gangs. Since delinquent boys rejected all middle class standards, some acts considered to be ¡°wrong¡± by the middle class may not be wrong by the delinquent boy¡¯s standards. For example, a child fostered in the subculture that did not respect the law was prone to temptation of deviance. This theory explains why crime rate is so high in inner city and rural areas.
In a democratic society, children are not evaluated against others of their own group but against ¡°all corners¡± and measured by ¡°the middle-class measuring rod,¡± whereby all children are...