‘Critically Discuss the View That Sub Cultural Theories Continue to Provide a Major Contribution to Explaining Youth Offending Behaviour in Contemporary Society’

‘Critically Discuss the View That Sub Cultural Theories Continue to Provide a Major Contribution to Explaining Youth Offending Behaviour in Contemporary Society’

Youth offending behaviour can be described as anti-social behaviours carried out by young people and how they commit various crimes throughout society. Deviant subcultures have been one area which has evidently shown to be causes of such behaviours. Researchers have clearly viewed the ideas and theories of early deviant subcultures through out the US and UK and provided us with theories to explain such behaviours, but do these theories contribute to contemporary society? Youth subcultures are groups which have formed with distinct styles, behaviours and certain interests. These cultures create an identity for youths external to social institutions such as their family lives, people at school, and many more areas of everyday life.

All theories which look into sub cultural behaviour shows there are a widespread of insights that certain social groups have, such as values and attitudes that facilitate or encourage delinquency and that they themselves do not just cause this kind of youth offending behaviour. These behaviours and actions which were carried out by the groups were deemed to be cool and a way of gaining respect and status within their sub culture.

Deviant subcultures emerged with explanations and theories trying to explain youth offending during the 1940s and 1950s within the US. Albert K. Cohen (1955) examined the concept of subculture and how it was used to understand the social world. Cohen’s argument was based mainly on lower class youths and how they were occupied with such offending behaviours. These youths tended to build delinquent subcultures, which had strong values and they were against the dominant culture which surrounded them. It was believed that social structure played a part in determining problems in later life and that being born into working class family may encourage various behaviours of youth offending. Furthermore Cohen explored that youths experience a sense of status frustration, when youths grow up they go through stages...

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