Thursday 11th September 2014

Assess the usefulness of sub cultural theories in explaining sub cultural crime and deviance in society today.
There are many different institutions in societies around the world. The main dominate cultures around society will share the same theories of society of what is acceptable when it comes to the norms and values of crime and deviant behaviour. Subcultural groups however differ from the main cultures of society and have a different view of the norms and values of crime and deviance. It could either be a small group in the society who either believe crime either is or isn't acceptable, none the less their view differs from the norms of values of the majority of the society. Subcultural theories can be seen to exist when a dominate cultures has the same theories of crime and the subcultural theories will differ. This may, for instance be that everyone in that society believes that crime is unacceptable and frowned upon.
However in lower deprived areas they may believe crime isn't as bad as middle class people deem it to be and that in fact the acts committed which are termed criminal or deviant aren't seen as this. Merton would support the view of subcultural on the same basis that subcultural tend to be differentiated when it’s through a Marxist view point with the differentiation between middle and lower class. Merton saw that individuals in society were socialised by primary socialisation so that in that culture of the society they were brought up with being familiarised with certain things. These would usually be assets, such as the middle class being brought up around nice houses and materials where as the lower class were brought up with fending for their assets and receiving a lot of their assets through the welfare state. This is then how individuals learn of the norms and values of crime and deviance, it may be the