Explaining Susceptibility to Opposition Culture

• In Event: Ecological Theories of Crime

Abstract

One view of subcultural theory suggests that in places where criminal subcultures exist, everyone is likely to be affected by them. Yet, scholars have increasingly recognized that the effects of criminal subcultures are likely to be selective, with some individuals in a given community internalizing the values and norms of the subculture and others rejecting them (e.g. consider Anderson’s distinction between “decent” and “street”). But what determines why some accept and some reject the values and norms of an oppositional culture? To date, there has been little if any attention given to who is most vulnerable to the influence of subcultures in communities where they do exist. This study seeks to address this gap in the literature. Using arguments culled from multiple subcultural perspectives, we test a set of hypotheses regarding how individual characteristics and social-relational factors affect variation in individuals’ degree of agreement with oppositional cultural values for those who live in neighborhoods where there is a presence of oppositional culture.

Authors

• Barbara D. Warner, Georgia State University

• Graham C. Ousey, College of William and Mary