Delinquency

Behaviour that breaks laws or social rules, especially when committed by young people.

Criminal or antisocial behaviour, especially among young people.

Cohen helps explain behaviour such as vandalism that has no obvious financial reward. Its attraction may be peer respect rather than money. His explanation also shows why delinquency can become a group activity rather than an isolated individual response.

Crime and deviance committed by young people, usually referring to relatively minor behaviour.

For Cohen, connect educational failure and poor employment prospects to status frustration, then explain how delinquency brings peer prestige.

Explain the chain from blocked status at school to status frustration, then to peer-group values and delinquency. Do not simply say that working-class boys commit crime.

Non-utilitarian delinquency brings no material gain, but it can still bring status and respect within a group.

In Delinquent Boys (1955), the American sociologist Albert Cohen developed a functionalist explanation of working-class boys’ delinquency. His ideas can be applied to the UK, but their American origins matter when judging how widely they apply.

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AQA GCSE Sociology · 8192

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Eduqas GCSE Sociology · C200