Books, E-Books Great Discounts

SUBCULTURE

Sociologyindex, Sociology Books 2012

A culture-within-a-culture; the somewhat distinct norms, values and behaviour of particular groups located within society.

The concept of subculture implies some degree of group self-sufficiency such that individuals may interact, find employment, recreation, friends and mates within the group.

Society is heterogeneous and culture is not spread out evenly. It is from here that ideas of subcultures/subsocieties emerge. Subcultures are linked to the deviance literature and some sociologists have focused on subsociety to avoid the culture issue altogether. 

They go through each of the four problems referenced:

Subculture has often been treated as synonymous with the population comprising the subsociety. 

Subculture has been examined without sufficient concern for delineating the groups of individuals serving as its referent. 

The subcultural system is pictured as homogeneous, static and closed. 

Subculture is depicted as consisting in its entirety of values, norms and central themes.

Cohen’s theory follows the well-known adage “my child went wrong by hanging out with the wrong crowd”. This wrong crowd is the center of Cohen’s theory; phenomena called the delinquent subculture. 

A subculture is a group of people within a society that share a set of ideas and ways of doing things that differs from the ways of dominant society. The subculture gives a sense of belonging and solutions to problems.

Two factors of the delinquent subculture are (1) negativistic spite, malice, and contempt with active rule breaking (2) “short-run hedonism”, pleasure seeking with little interest in long-run goals.

Cohen felt the delinquent subculture formed in order to provide a solution to the problem of status (or lack of status) for lower class youth – “respect in the eyes of ones fellows” becomes very important.

THE INMATE SUBCULTURE IN DUTCH PRISONS 
M. GRAPENDAAL, Research and Documentation Centre Ministry of Justice The Netherlands 
The British Journal of Criminology 30:341-357 (1990) © 1990 Centre for Crime & Justice Studies This article is a shortened version of the first Dutch research into the inmate subculture in Dutch prisons. The contents of this subculture are described, as is the initiation process by which new prisoners become members of the prison community. Subcultural variations are traced to certain differences in prison regimes. The conclusion is that, to achieve a general explanation of the phenomena observed, one needs an approach integrating two theoretical models: the deprivation model and the importation model. For practical purposes, however, the deprivation model is of more importance. - bjc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/30/3/341

Marijuana Argot As Subculture Threads - Social Constructions by Users in New York City 
Bruce D. Johnson, Flutura Bardhi, Stephen J. Sifaneck and Eloise Dunlap
National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. - British Journal of Criminology 2006
Marijuana-related argot provides socially constructed ways of talking, thinking, expressing, communicating and interacting among marijuana users and distributors. Such argot also provides the verbal threads by which the marijuana subculture integrates use practices among diverse individuals, groups and regions. An ethnographic study of blunt and marijuana users in New York City identified 180 argot words that are commonly used to maintain the subculture secrecy. Such argot constitutes the subculture threads connecting and linking diverse user groups, networks and markets. These words convey the dynamic expressiveness involved in shared consumption and as a comprehensive communication system among subculture participants. Argot terms are created and spread by subculture participants. Argot also delineates important distinctions within and helps organize how the marijuana subculture structures use practices, networks and markets. Argot maintains boundaries with other drug subcultures. The dynamic use of argot constitutes a communication system widely understood among marijuana subculture participants, yet is largely hidden from mainstream culture. - bjc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/46/1/46

Sex Work and Drug Use in a Subculture of Violence 
Hilary L. Surratt, James A. Inciardi, Steven P. Kurtz, Marion C. Kiley, Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies, University of Delaware 
Crime & Delinquency, Vol. 50, No. 1, 43-59 (2004) © 2004 SAGE Publications
Abstract: This article examines the subculture of violence thesis as it relates to female street sex workers in Miami. Interview and focus group methods were used to study the intersections of childhood trauma, drug use, and violent victimization among 325 women. Using targeted sampling, crack- and heroin-using sex workers were recruited through street outreach into an HIV-prevention research program. Interviews used standard instrumentation and focused on drug-related and sexual risk for HIV, sex work, violence, childhood trauma, and health status. Nearly half of the respondents reported physical (44.9%) and/ or sexual (50.5%) abuse as children, and over 40% experienced violence from clients in the prior year: 24.9% were beaten, 12.9% were raped, and 13.8% were threatened with weapons. Consistent relationships between historical and current victimization suggest that female sex workers experience a continuing cycle of violence throughout their lives. The policy and research implications of these findings are discussed. - cad.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/50/1/43

Slang Usage in the Addict Subculture 
Paul F. Cromwell, JR., Sam Houston State University, Department of Sociology, San Antonio College Juvenile Probation Officer, Houston, Tex. 
The drug addict lives in a unique world, differing even in its language, a new jargon. Possibly nothing more clearly illustrates the fact that drug addiction has cultural components than the special communication among its members. This special argot plays an important role in the society of the drug user by pro viding in-group cohesion and communication. 
Crime & Delinquency, Vol. 16, No. 1, 75-78 (1970) © 1970 SAGE Publications
Until the advent of large numbers of juveniles into the outer fringes of the addict subculture, little was known of this unique language except by police and persons specializing in the rehabil itation of the addict. The juveniles picked up much of the slang and put it into popular usage. 
Through the facilities of the police departments of large cities throughout the United States, a glossary of current slang usage was compiled and is included in this article. - cad.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/16/1/75

A Subculture of Parasuicide? 
Stephen D. Platt, Royal Edinburgh Hospital 
Human Relations, Vol. 38, No. 4, 257-297 (1985) © 1985 The Tavistock Institute
The purpose of this study was to devise an empirical test of the hypothesis that geographical areas with high parasuicide rates (HRAs) are characterized by a distinctive subculture which is expected to facilitate parasuicidal behavior to a considerable degree. A secondary hypothesis states that cultural differences ("cultural distance") between parasuicides and the general population will be relatively more pronounced in areas with low parasuicide rates (LRAs) than in HRAs. Data were gathered on four separate samples in Edinburgh: two groups of parasuicides, one from an HRA, the other from three LRAs, and two groups of population controls matched pairwise with each parasuicide by sex, age, and area of residence. Four instruments, of which three were specially designed for the study, were used to test middle-order hypotheses relating to specific elements of the cultural system. These instruments are fully described. Empirical evidence undoubtedly supports the prediction of a meaning system in the HRA which is distinctive from that found in the LRA. However, not all differences are in the expected direction. Although there is evidence of greater toleration in the HRA of deviant behavior in general, parasuicide is equally proscribed in the two areas and is given the most extreme rating of 19 conduct norms in the HRA. The HRA subculture is also significantly less understanding of parasuicide, and considers it to be more immoral and sanctionable than the dominant LRA culture. Overall, lifetime contact with suicidal behavior is equally extensive in the two areas, although more intimate experience and personal involvement is reported in the HRA. Detailed analyses of within-area differences relating to all measures and instruments provide little support for the secondary hypothesis; cultural distance is similar in both groups. Possible explanations to account for the unexpected findings are proposed. - hum.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/38/4/257

Sports Within the Black Subculture: A Matter of Social Class or a Distinctive Subculture? 
Elmer Spreitzer, Eldon E. Snyder, Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University,
Journal of Sport & Social Issues, Vol. 14, No. 1, 48-58 (1990) © 1990 SAGE Publications
This research compares the relative prominence of sports within the black and white subcultures. The focus is on variability among individuals in sports involvement as operationally defined by a seven- item index of passive sports participation. The data derive from a national probability survey conducted by Research Forecasting Incorporated for the Miller Brewing Company. Based on multiple regression, analysis of variance, and analysis of covariance, the greater extent of sports involvement among blacks remained evident after controlling for age, education, income, and size of city. We interpret these findings as reflective of a distinctive subculture as contrasted with a "culture of poverty" phenomenon as discussed by Rudman (1986) in his study of the sports mystique within the black subculture. - jss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/14/1/48

Fighting Back: A Test Of The Subculture Of Violence Thesis 
Ineke Haen Marshall, Vincent J. Webb, University of Nebraska-Omaha 
Criminal Justice Policy Review, Vol. 2, No. 4, 325-336 (1987) © 1987 SAGE Publications
National Crime Survey (NCS) data on criminal incidents over a ten-year period (1973-1982) were used to examine the correlates of type of self-protective action taken by crime victims. The primary focus of the study is the usefulness of the subculture of violence thesis for the interpretation of victim responses to personal crime. The study also explores the importance of contextual ("neighborhood") characteristics vis-a-vis individual characteristics in explaining victim behavior. - cjp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/4/325

The Inmate Subculture in Jails 
JAMES GAROFALO, RICHARD D. CLARK, State University of New York at Albany 
Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 12, No. 4, 415-434 (1985) © 1985 American Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology
There is a long line of prison research addressing the nature and correlates of the "inmate subculture"—the adherence of inmates to a set of norms that reflect opposition to institutional rules and staff. This article presents preliminary findings on variability in adherence to inmate norms among the populations of three local jails—environments that are characterized by shorter stays and more rapid inmate turnover than are prisons. The findings suggest that positive orientations toward inmate subcultural norms in jail settings are mostly attributable to experienced inmates who are already familiar with the norms when they enter the jail and who readapt to the norms after determining that they will not be gaining their freedom immediately. - cjb.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/4/415

Male transsexuals in the homosexual subculture - EM Levine 
Am J Psychiatry 1976; 133:1318-1321 Copyright © 1976 by American Psychiatric Association 
The author describes 20 male transsexuals who differ from most discussed in professional studies and from those in media portrayals in that they live in the male homosexual subculture. Furthermore, interviews with these individuals indicated that transsexuals are no more sexually or socially homogeneous than heterosexuals or homosexuals. In general, these men entered the homosexual subculture in their teens; they knew they were not heterosexual and therefore assumed they must be homosexual. As their gender identity crystallized, homosexual activity became repugnant and they rejected and were rejected by male homosexuals. Being unable to attract heterosexual men, they sought bisexual partners in a futile effort to confirm their identity as females. The author suggests that in addition to efforts to help transsexuals shift their gender identity, psychiatrists should emphasize prevention of this psychopathologic symptom. - ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/133/11/1318

Opportunity, Subculture and the Economic Performance of Urban Ethnic Groups
Martin T. Katzman, This essay is the outgrowth of a study of ethnic groups undertaken with Martin Levin, University of California, Irvine.
Harvard University Graduate School of Education Cambridge, Mass. 021381
American Journal of Economics and Sociology 28 (4), 351–366.
Abstract. An attempt is made to account for age-specific differences in economic performance among 14 ethnic groups living in the nation's nine largest metropolitan areas, by regression analysis of 1950 U.S. Census data. A large proportion of the variance in occupational structure, income, unemployment, and labor force status is accounted for by variations in urban opportunities, relative group size and the members' educational attainment. With the specified economic factors held constant, ethnic factors—nationality and nativity—are associated with residual differences in economic performance. These residual ethnic influences as well as ethnic differences in marital, educational, and labor force status suggest that differences in ethnic subculture have important economic consequences.

Gary Alan Fine & Sherryl Kleinman: "Rethinking Subculture: An Interactionist Analysis"
Fine, Gary Alan and Sherryl Kleinman. "Rethinking Subculture: An Interactionist Analysis." The American Journal of Sociology, Vol 85, No 1 (July 1979), 1-20.
Abstract: Subculture, despite the term's wide usage in sociology, has not proved to be a very satisfactory explanatory concept. Several problems in previous subculture research are discussed: (1) the confusion between subculture and subsociety, (2) the lack of a meaningful referent for subcultures, (3) the homogeneity and stasis associated with the concept, and (4) the emphasis on defining subcultures in terms of values and central themes. It is argued that for the subculture construct to be of maximal usefulness it needs to be linked to processes of interaction. Subculture is re-conceptualized in terms of cultural spread occurring through an interlocking group network characterized by multiple group membership, weak ties, structural roles conducive to information spread between groups, and media diffusion. Identification with the referent group serves to motivate the potential member to adopt the artifacts, behaviors, norms, and values characteristic of the subculture. Youth subcultures are presented as illustrations of these processes operate. - zephoria.org/alterity/archives/2005/05/gary_alan_fine.html

Subcultures and Subsocieties

Books, E-Books Great Discounts