Who and when
AQA A-Level Sociology 7192
Education
Topic overviewThe role and functions of educationClass differences in educational achievementLabelling, subcultures and processes within schoolsGender and educational achievementEthnicity and educational achievementSelection and marketisationPrivatisation and vocational educationEducational policy, equality and globalisation
Methods in Context
Theory and Methods
Culture and IdentityOptional topic
Families and HouseholdsOptional topic
Topic overviewFunctionalist views of the familyMarxist and feminist views of the familyThe New Right, postmodernism and family policyMarriage, cohabitation and divorceFamily diversity and the personal life perspectiveConjugal roles and domestic labourPower relationships and domestic violenceThe social construction of childhoodBirth rates and death ratesFamily size and the ageing populationMigration and globalisation
HealthOptional topic
Work, Poverty and WelfareOptional topic
Beliefs in SocietyOptional topic
Topic overviewIdeology and science as belief systemsFunctionalist views of religionMarxist and feminist views of religionReligion as a force for social changeChurches, sects, denominations and cultsNew religious movements and New Age movementsReligion, gender, ethnicity, age and social classSecularisationBelieving without belonging and postmodern religionGlobalisation, fundamentalism and religion worldwide
Global DevelopmentOptional topic
The MediaOptional topic
Stratification and DifferentiationOptional topic
Crime and Deviance
Topic overviewFunctionalist, strain and control theories of crimeSubcultural theories of crimeInteractionism and labelling theoryMarxist and critical theories of crimeLeft and right realismGender and crimeSocial class, white-collar and corporate crimeEthnicity, policing and the criminal justice systemGlobalisation and crimeThe media, crime and fear of crimeMoral panics and the deviancy amplification spiralGreen crimeState crime and human rightsDenial, neutralisation and prosecuting state crimeSituational and environmental crime preventionRealist crime control, surveillance and the panopticonPunishment, sentencing and the criminal justice systemVictims and victimologyCrime prevention strategies and their limits
Crime and Deviance
Subcultural theories of crime
- 2 things to know
- Paper 3
Overview
Cohen's status frustration and middle-class measuring rod, Cloward and Ohlin's three subcultures, and Miller's focal concerns.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Who and when
What subculture types did Cloward and Ohlin identify, and what did Miller argue?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
How did Albert Cohen's subcultural theory differ from Merton's strain theory?
Model answer
Cohen explained non-utilitarian, group delinquency such as vandalism and joyriding, arguing deviance is a collective subcultural response, rather than Merton's individual, money-motivated adaptations.
- 2
What did Albert Cohen mean by status frustration?
Model answer
The sense of shame and inadequacy working-class boys feel when they cannot gain status in a school system geared to middle-class values, leaving them stuck at the bottom of the official status hierarchy.
- 3
What is the 'middle-class measuring rod' in Cohen's theory?
Model answer
The middle-class standards, such as ambition, deferred gratification and politeness, against which teachers judge all pupils, and by which working-class boys tend to be assessed as failures.
- 4
How does a delinquent subculture resolve status frustration according to Cohen?
Model answer
It inverts mainstream values, creating an alternative status hierarchy in which boys can win status among their peers by behaving in ways that respectable society condemns.
- 5
What are the key features of Cohen's delinquent subculture?
Model answer
It is non-utilitarian (crime committed for its own sake, not profit), malicious and spiteful, and negativistic, deliberately inverting the values of mainstream society.
- 6
What did Cloward and Ohlin add with the idea of an illegitimate opportunity structure?
Model answer
They argued that, just as access to legitimate opportunities is unequal, so is access to illegitimate ones. The type of deviant subculture that develops depends on the illegitimate opportunities available in a neighbourhood.
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