Middle class areaWest Garden Grove - 92845

Household median income $89,768Below poverty line: 4.3%

Residential: Belgrave & Blackmer Commercial: Chapman & Valley View

Pacifica High School

Upper class areaBeverly Hills - 90210

Household median income $129,539

Below poverty line: 6.9%Residential: 625 N. Canon Dr.

Commercial: 278 Via Rodeo Dr.Beverly Hills High School

Lower class areaWillowbrook - 90059

Household median income $32,455

Below poverty line: 34.1%Residential: Towne Ave. & 130th

. St.

Commercial: Avalon & El Segundo

Centennial High School

Underclass area

Skid row – 554 San Julian St., Los Angeles

American culture is egalitarian Everyone has an equal chance to gain wealth If you can’t it’s your own fault – maybe you’re “lazy”

Kornhauser – strain is evenly spread through society Rich and poor always want more Economic gain isn’t a cultural value – it’s intrinsic Hard work (Protestant ethic) is a weak value, easily overcome by

greed Criminals and delinquents not strained

▪ Have low aspirations (what they want) and low expectations (what they expect to get)

American culture is “criminogenic” – it promotes crime Strong forces promote goal of material success Weak forces promote culturally accepted means

▪ Protestant work ethic, honesty, education, delayed gratification Social structure limits possibilities

“Anomie” – Emile Durkheim

Society can’t regulate appetites

Rapid social change breaks down controls

“Strain” – Merton – Social change not required to explain crime

Individual “appetites” originate in the culture

America: heavy emphasis on material wealth

Severe strain on lower classes

▪ Limits imposed by social structure – not by talents or efforts

▪ Fewer legitimate opportunities

▪ Lack of socially acceptable “means”, too much emphasis on “ends”

▪ Those who use deviant means are not consistently punished

▪ So, crime is a rational choice – a way to adapt to strain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Iu9yOAhks

3 mis.

Conformity (accept goals and means) In stable society, most persons will keep trying

even if they don’t succeed Innovation (accept goals, seek out new means)

Non-criminal adaptations – training, education Criminal adaptations – steal, deal drugs

Ritualism (reject goals, accept means) Achieve minimum success

Retreatism (reject goals and means) “Turn on, tune in, drop out” – Timothy Leary and the psychedelic

60’s Drop out – of the rat race

Rebellion (replace socially accepted values with new values) Political rebellion, spiritualism

http://youtu.be/S-fpV34frPE 8 mis.

Messner & Rosenfeld agree with Merton that cultural pressures for success crime BUT - expanding opportunities may cause more crime unless culture

changes▪ Newly “enabled” persons lose their excuse to stay poor

Economic goals override influence of social institutions▪ Families, schools, politics – all are subservient to the economy

Recommendations▪ Support families with child care and flexible work schedules▪ Make a distinction between education and job training▪ Protect citizens from the marketplace with social safety nets ▪ Engage young people in community service▪ Give greater social prominence to goals other than material success

Bernard says that strain is concentrated in lower classes but is primarily structural Delinquents have a gap between expectations and aspirations Their excuses & justifications are misinterpreted as part of a “lower-class

lifestyle” Adaptations described by Merton are real reactions to situations that

individuals cannot overcome

Most delinquency occurs in gangs

Mostly not caused by strain

Non-utilitarian, malicious, negativistic (vandalism)

Gang member goals are intangible (not tangible, i.e. money)

Status and self-worth

Which delinquents are strained?

Youths without ascribed status (e.g., come from a poor family)

Youths who cannot gain achieved status (lose when competing with others)

Cohen’s theory similar to Merton’s “rebellion”

Form that “rebellion” takes is shaped by a group – not just by an individual

Goals are both tangible (Merton) and intangible (Cohen)

Goal of serious delinquents is “conspicuousconsumption”

Fast cars, fancy clothes, “swell dames”

Goals clash with conventional values

Serious delinquents are looked down on for...

...what they don’t want (middle-class lifestyle)

...what they do want (fast cars, fancy clothes, “swell dames”

If they lack licit and illicit opportunities to get what they want, serious delinquents may form a violent or “conflict” gang to express their anger

http://youtu.be/Jg1c6ZY5jFc 7 mis.

Strain means two different things Characteristics of a society that doesn’t

provide legitimate means to achieveculturally valued ends

Individual feelings of frustration, anxiety and depression from above Structural inequalities encourage deviance

Unequal legitimate opportunities caused by social structure Deviant response varies according to “structuring variables”

Social/economic circumstances Technological advances Specific opportunities (e.g., Columbian drug cartel) Individual psychological responses

It’s the “feelings” that directly cause crime

Social structural inequality frustration crime

http://youtu.be/LDXzDfq5mq4 7 mis.

Individual strain

Negative relationships & stressful life events

▪ Juveniles stressed by bad interpersonal relationships

▪ Cannot escape”stressors that originate at home or in school

Delinquency & drug use a way to cope or manage strain

May provide “relief” from stresses

http://youtu.be/3I8dE3QU3bk 10 mis.

Juvenile Delinquency Prevention andControl Act of 1961

Improve education

Create job opportunities

Organize lower-class families

Provide services to individuals, gangs, families

War on Poverty – Economic Opportunity Act of 1964

Crime and poverty based on social structure

Original intent to change social structure

Implementation geared to change poor people