Implications of the anomie and sub-cultural theories of deviance in criminology

A sub-culture is a distinctive culture subsisting within a culture which differs from the majority culture but does not necessarily represent a culture deemed deviant by the majority. A subculture is only partly different from the “parent” culture, and cannot be totally different from the culture of which it is a part; otherwise it would be termed a “contra-culture.” The concept of “anomie” can be loosely translated as a state of “normlessness”- a process whereby social norms lose their hold over individual or group behaviour. Anomie developed upon under a structural-functionalistic approach can be studied under two heads- as an individual disorder and as a social disorder. The essential thrust of this approach was that individuals experience anomie not because normative guidelines do not exist, but rather because they are unable or unwilling to conform to such norms. Sub-cultural theories of crime and deviance focus on cultural transmission; Reactive and Independent are the two main theoretical refinements of the sub-cultural theory. In a “Reactive or Oppositional” sub-culture the group members develop norms and values that are both a response to and opposition against the prevailing norms and values existing in a wider or “conventional” culture. In the “Independent” variant, as the name suggests, the members of the group are held to adopt a set of norms and values, which are effectively “self-contained” and specific to the group. Whereas these values, in particular, differ from those of the wider culture within which the subculture exists, they may not necessarily or consciously be in opposition to such values. However, what such sub-cultural values represent is an “independent” product of and solution to, the problems faced by people in their everyday lives.