Status Frustration

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Cohen's theory of status frustration, which explains that lower class boys are failures at bourgeois roles because they do not fit the bourgeois mold physically or through their learned mindset and thus tend to invert defensively the dominant norms, viewing them in a negative manner. The author relates that, although Cohen's' notion of status deprivation and the middle class measuring rod help to answer questions that remain unresolved by strain and cultural deviance theories, his theory fails to explain why some delinquent subcultures eventually become law-abiding, even when this social class position is fixed. The paper states that Cohen's theory also fails by standards of economists, who explain criminality, in particularly theft and robbery by gangs, by economic standards.

From the Paper:

"In 1955, Cohen wrote "Delinquent Boys" to examine how a subculture emerged. He noted that delinquency among young men was more prevalent among the lower classes, and most commonly took the form of a juvenile gang. Cohen found that the values of delinquent subcultures are adverse to those of the dominant culture. The subcultures emerged in the slums of the nation's largest cities and are rooted in class differentials, parental aspirations and school standards, indicating that the root problem was a desire for recognition and respect, and the search for an accepted place in society."

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