2.3 Sociological Theories

Society's account (the mainstream — the Criminology parent-course's rivers, applied to the young):1. Social disorganization (the neighbourhood's failure of control — the adolescent roams where no one watches; Shaw and McKay's zones).2. Strain/anomie (Merton's blocked goals-and-legitimate-means gap — the young blocked first; Cohen's delinquent subculture as the status-solution of the working-class boy).3. Differential association (Sutherland: delinquency is learned in intimate groups — the peer group as the delinquency's classroom).4. Control theory (Hirschi's bonds — attachment, commitment, involvement, belief; the delinquent is the unbonded youth — the school-and-family interventions' theory).5. Labeling (Becker: the system's first intervention can fix the identity — the "delinquent" label's self-fulfilling course; the diversion doctrine's root — Unit 6.5).6. Subculture theories (the gang's own status system — reputation, loyalty, the "focal concerns" of trouble-toughness-excitement).7. Conflict (the age-and-class power's shadow — the young-and-poor policed more, defined more).