Cultural Criminology

Theories of Crime

Jeff Ferrell, Keith Hayward

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780754629436
• eBook ISBN: 9781351570398
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: History

Cultural criminology has now emerged as a distinct theoretical perspective, and as a notable intellectual alternative to certain aspects of contemporary criminology. Cultural criminology attempts to theorize the interplay of cultural processes, media practices, and crime; the emotional and embodied dimensions of crime and victimization; the particular characteristics of crime within late modern/late capitalist culture; and the role of criminology itself in constructing the reality of crime. In this sense cultural criminology not only offers innovative theoretical models for making sense of crime, criminality, and crime control, but presents as well a critical theory of criminology as a field of study. This collection is designed to highlight each of these dimensions of cultural criminology - its theoretical foundations, its current theoretical trajectories, and its broader theoretical critiques-by presenting the best of cultural criminological work from the United States, Europe, Australia, and elsewhere.

Part I

Theoretical Foundations

[1]

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND SUBTERRANEAN VALUES

DAVID MATZA

University of California, (Berkeley)

GRESHAM M. SYKES

Dartmouth College

Current explanations of juvenile delinquency place a heavy stress on the delinquent’s deviance, not only with regard to his behavior but also with regard to his underlying values. It can be argued, however, that the delinquent’s values are far less deviant than commonly portrayed and that the faulty picture is due to an erroneous view of the middle-class value system. A number of supposedly delinquent values are closely akin to those embodied in the leisure activities of the dominant society. To view adolescents in general and delinquents in particular as members of the last leisure class may help us explain both the large amount of unrecorded delinquency and the occurrence of delinquency throughout the class structure.

CURRENT explanations of juvenile delinquency can be divided roughly into two major types. On the one hand, juvenile delinquency is seen as a product of personality disturbances or emotional conflicts within the individual; on the other hand, delinquency is viewed as a result of relatively normal personalities exposed to a “disturbed” social environment—particularly in the form of a deviant sub-culture in which the individual learns to be delinquent as others learn to conform to the law. The theoretical conflict between these two positions has been intensified, unfortunately, by the fact that professional pride sometimes leads psychologists and sociologists to define the issue as a conflict between disciplines and to rally behind their respective academic banners.

Despite many disagreements between these two points of view, one assumption is apt to elicit common support. The delinquent, it is asserted, is deviant; not only does his behavior run counter to the law but his underlying norms, attitudes, and values also stand opposed to those of the dominant social order. And the dominant social order, more often than not, turns out to be the world of the middle class.

We have suggested in a previous article that this image of delinquents and the larger society as antagonists can be misleading.¹ Many delinquents, we argued, are essentially in agreement with the larger society, at least with regard to the evaluation of delinquent behavior as “wrong.” Rather than standing in opposition to conventional ideas of good conduct, the delinquent is likely to adhere to the dominant norms in belief but render them ineffective in practice by holding various attitudes and perceptions which serve to neutralize the norms as checks on behavior. “Techniques of neutralization,” such as the denial of responsibility or the definition of injury as rightful revenge, free the individual from a large measure of social control.

This approach to delinquency centers its attention on how an impetus to engage in delinquent behavior is translated into action. But it leaves unanswered a serious question: What makes delinquency attractive in the first place? Even if it is granted that techniques of neutralization or some similar evasions of social controls pave the way for overt delinquency, there remains the problem of the values or ends underlying delinquency and the relationship of these values to those of the larger society. Briefly stated, this paper argues that (a) the values behind much juvenile delinquency are far less deviant than they are commonly portrayed; and (b) the faulty picture is due to a gross over-simplification of the middle-class value system.

THE VALUES OF DELINQUENCY

There are many perceptive accounts describing the behavior of juvenile delinquents and their underlying values, using methods ranging from participant observation to projective tests.² Although there are some important differences of opinion in the interpretation of this material, there exists a striking consensus on actual substance. Many divisions and sub-divisions are possible, of course, in classifying these behavior patterns and the values on which they are based, but three major themes emerge with marked regularity.

First, many observers have noted that delinquents are deeply immersed in a restless search for excitement, “thrills,” or “kicks.” The approved style of life, for many delinquents, is an adventurous one. Activities pervaded by displays of daring and charged with danger are highly valued in comparison with more mundane and routine patterns of behavior. This search for excitement is not easily satisfied in legitimate outlets such as organized recreation, as Tappan has indicated. The fact that an activity involves breaking the law is precisely the fact that often infuses it with an air of excitement.³ In fact, excitement or “kicks” may come to be defined with clear awareness as “any act tabooed by ‘squares’ that heightens and intensifies the present moment of experience and differentiates it as much as possible from the humdrum routines of daily life.”⁴ But in any event, the delinquent way of life is frequently a way of life shot through with adventurous exploits that are valued for the stimulation they provide.

It should be noted that in courting physical danger, experimenting with the forbidden, provoking the authorities, and so on, the delinquent is not simply enduring hazards; he is also creating hazards in a deliberate attempt to manufacture excitement. As Miller has noted, for example, in his study of Roxbury, for many delinquents “the rhythm of life fluctuates between periods of relatively routine and repetitive activities and sought situations of greater emotional Stimulation.”⁵ The excitement, then, that flows from gang rumbles, games of “chicken” played with cars, or the use of drugs is not merely an incidental byproduct but may instead serve as a major motivating force.

Second, juvenile delinquents commonly exhibit a disdain for “getting on” in the realm of work. Occupational goals involving a steady job or careful advancement are apt to be lacking, and in their place we find a sort of aimless drifting or grandiose dreams of quick success. Now it takes a very deep faith in the maxims of Benjamin Franklin—or a certain naiveté, perhaps—to believe that hard work at the lower ranges of the occupational hierarchy is a sure path to worldly achievement. The delinquent is typically described as choosing another course, rationally or irrationally. Chicanery or manipulation, which may take the form of borrowing from social workers or more elaborate modes of “hustling;” an emphasis on “pull,” frequently with reference to obtaining a soft job which is assumed to be available only to those with influential connections: all are seen as methods of exploiting the social environment without drudgery, and are accorded a high value. Simple expropriation should be included, of course, in the form of theft, robbery, and the rest; but it is only one of a variety of ways of “scoring” and does not necessarily carry great prestige in the eyes of the delinquent. In fact, there is some evidence that, among certain delinquents, theft and robbery may actually be looked down upon as pointing to a lack of wit or skill. A life of ease based on pimping or the numbers game may be held out as a far more admirable goal.⁶ In any event, the delinquent is frequently convinced that only suckers work and he avoids, if he can, the regimen of the factory, store, and office.

Some writers have coupled the delinquent’s disdain of work with a disdain of money. Much delinquent activity, it is said, is non-utilitarian in character and the delinquent disavows the material aspirations of the larger society, thus protecting himself against inevitable frustration. Now it is true that the delinquent’s attacks against property are often a form of play, as Cohen has pointed out, rather than a means to a material end.⁷ It is also true that the delinquent often shows little liking for the slow accumulation of financial resources. Yet rather than saying that the delinquent disdains money, it would seem more accurate to say that the delinquent is deeply and constantly concerned with the problem of money in his own way. The delinquent wants money, probably no less than the law-abiding, but not for the purposes of a careful series of expenditures or some long-range objective. Rather, money is frequently desired as something to be squandered in gestures of largesse, in patterns of conspicuous consumption. The sudden acquisition of large sums of money is his goal—the “big score”—and he will employ legal means if possible and illegal means if necessary. Since legal means are likely to be thought of as ineffective, it is far from accidental that “smartness” is such an important feature of the delinquent’s view of life: “Smartness involves the capacity to outsmart, outfox, outwit, dupe …”⁸

A third theme running through accounts of juvenile delinquency centers on aggression. This theme is most likely to be selected as pointing to the delinquent’s alienation from the larger society. Verbal and physical assaults are a commonplace, and frequent reference is made to the delinquent’s basic hostility, his hatred, and his urge to injure and destroy.

The delinquent’s readiness for aggression is particularly emphasized in the analysis of juvenile gangs found in the slum areas of large cities. In such gangs we find the struggles for “turf,” the beatings, and the violent feuds which form such distinctive elements in the portrayal of delinquency. As Cloward and Ohlin have pointed out, we can be led into error by viewing these gang delinquents as typical of all delinquents.⁹ And Bloch and Niederhoffer have indicated that many current notions of the delinquent gang are quite worn out and require reappraisal.¹⁰ Yet the gang delinquent’s use of violence for the maintenance of “rep,” the proof of “heart,” and so on, seems to express in extreme form the idea that aggression is a demonstration of toughness and thus of masculinity. This idea runs through much delinquent activity. The concept of machismo, of the path to manhood through the ability to take it and hand it out, is foreign to the average delinquent only in name.

In short, juvenile delinquency appears to be permeated by a cluster of values that can be characterized as the search for kicks, the disdain of work and a desire for the big score, and the acceptance of aggressive toughness as proof of masculinity. Whether these values are seen as pathological expressions of a distorted personality or as the traits of a delinquent sub-culture, they are taken as indicative of the delinquent’s deviation from the dominant society. The delinquent, it is said, stands apart from the dominant society not only in terms of his illegal behavior but in terms of his basic values as well.

DELINQUENCY AND LEISURE

The deviant nature of the delinquent’s values might pass unquestioned at first glance. Yet when we examine these values a bit more closely, we must be struck by their similarity to the components of the code of the “gentleman of leisure” depicted by Thorstein Veblen. The emphasis on daring and adventure; the rejection of the prosaic discipline of work; the taste for luxury and conspicuous consumption; and the respect paid to manhood demonstrated through force—all find a prototype in that sardonic picture of a leisured elite. What is not familiar is the mode of expression of these values, namely, delinquency. The quality of the values is obscured by their context. When “daring” turns out to be acts of daring by adolescents directed against adult figures of accepted authority, for example, we are apt to see only the flaunting of authority and not the courage that may be involved. We suspect that if juvenile delinquency were highly valued by the dominant society—as is the case, let us say, in the deviance of prisoners of war or resistance fighters rebelling against the rules of their oppressors—the interpretation of the nature of delinquency and the delinquent might be far different.¹¹

In any event, the values of a leisure class seem to lie behind much delinquent activity, however brutalized or perverted their expression may be accounted by the dominant social order. Interestingly enough, Veblen himself saw a similarity between the pecuniary man, the embodiment of the leisure class, and the delinquent. “The ideal pecuniary man is like the ideal delinquent,” said Veblen, “in his unscrupulous conversion of goods and services to his own ends, and in a callous disregard for the feelings and wishes of others and of the remoter effects of his actions.”¹² For Veblen this comparison was probably no more than an aside, a part of polemical attack on the irresponsibility and pretentions of an industrial society’s rulers. And it is far from clear what Veblen meant by delinquency. Nonetheless, his barbed comparison points to an important idea. We have too easily assumed that the delinquent is deviant in his values, opposed to the larger society. This is due, in part, to the fact that we have taken an overly simple view of the value system of the supposedly law-abiding. In our haste to create a standard from which deviance can be measured, we have reduced the value system of the whole society to that of the middle class. We have ignored both the fact that society is not composed exclusively of the middle class and that the middle class itself is far from homogeneous.¹³

In reality, of course, the value system of any society is exceedingly complex and we cannot solve our problems in the analysis of deviance by taking as a baseline a simplicity which does not exist in fact. Not only do different social classes differ in their values, but there are also significant variations within a class based on ethnic origins, upward and downward mobility, region, age, etc. Perhaps even more important, however, is the existence of subterranean values—values, that is to say, which are in conflict or in competition with other deeply held values but which are still recognized and accepted by many.¹⁴ It is crucial to note that these contradictions in values are not necessarily the opposing viewpoints of two different groups. They may also exist within a single individual and give rise to profound feelings of ambivalence in many areas of life. In this sense, subterranean values are akin to priv...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Series Preface
• Introduction
• Part I Theoretical Foundations
• Part II Models of Inquiry and Critique
• Part III Crime, Media, and the Image
• Part IV Theorizing Crime and the City
• Part V Emotion, Edgework, and the Body
• Part VI Markets, Consumption, and Crime
• Name Index