Assess the extent to which subcultural theories remain useful in explaining the level and nature of juvenile crime in the UK today.

Various sociologists have views on subculture inparticuar subcultures links with deviant behaviour.

Albert Cohen was the first person to write about subcultures his book called 'Delinquent Boys' was published in 1955 he said that gang delinquency was alive in many inner city areas and that these gangs where using delinquent behaviour for instant gratification. Cohen agreed with Merton's anomie theory that working class people trying to achieve the middle class goals of dominant society but failing due to their circumstances cause subcultures to form with deviance celebrated rather than norms. Delinquency is there revenge on the system. Performing deviant tasks allows member of the culture to success and gain status within the culture.

Cloward and Ohlin also researched subcultures they also said that most delinquent youths do come from working class backgrounds but they believe there is more than one form of deviant subcultures. These types of sub culture include 'crimal subcultures' where its members use deviance to gain money success and tends to develop in areas where there is and adult crime community. 'Conflict subcultures'

Develop where there is no adult crime culture and adolescents have no legal or illegal oppertunies open to them and feel frustrated and resort to gang violence. The third type is retreats deviance this includes drug users and hustlers these tend to be double failures people who have given up on dominate values and failed on illegitimate means so slip into retreatist activates.

These theories do explain why most offenders are men aged between 18 and 21 but these aren't all the offenders and all the cultures mentioned take part in small crimes and deviant acts there are some offences that tend to be done by middle class people for example white collar crimes such as fraud tend to be underrepresented in crime statistic as the crime isn't common but the crimes tend to involve larger amounts of money. Very few white-collar crimes are taken to court and prosecuted and those that are tend to get a soft punishment.

Overall the subculture theory does explain crime in the UK today most crime is theft and in small amounts and most is in the transitional period of 18 to 21 year old men the theories aren't perfect as they don't allow for white collar crime but overall give a good view of crime in the working class.