SOCY 275 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Lloyd Ohlin, Richard Cloward, Talcott Parsons
24 Jun 2017
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Week 5: lecture 1, anomie theory the theory does not do a very good job of explaining why people near the top of the class structure engage in high levels of corporate and professional crime. Instrumental behaviour is one that is done to achieve something. Called stain theories: people experience socially induced difficulties they have to resolve. Albert cohen focussed on the origins and content of the subculture of the male juvenile offender. According to cohen, one way they may try to solve the problems which the middle-class measuring rod presents to them is by rejecting outright the middle class value system which rejects them. Gang delinquency, according to cohen, can signal such a rejection. Cohen found that much gang delinquency has an in-your-face quality. It was often malicious and negativistic and often seemed not to be oriented toward the achievement of specific material or non-material goals.
