Delinquency and Middle Class Goals

Abstract

The author is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology and Acting Head of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas. He is also a Research Associate at the Menninger Foundation and was formerly a Fellow at the Judge Baker Guidance Center, Boston. In this article, Dr. Spiller tests the common assumption that much delinquency can be accounted for by the rejection of or inability to attain middle class goals. In a study of two urban lower class gangs, little evidence was found to support this hypothesis. Instead, greater support was given to behavior supporting lower class culture, but there were striking differences between gangs, and even within segments of a gang, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Prestige in terms of middle class values was unimportant. However, evidence was found for a continuum among gangs and for bases of prestige to vary with that continuum. Violence and violative behavior, as avenues of prestige, were most important in the lowest class gang, while culturally neutral adolescent behavior was more predominant in the less delinquent gang.--Editor.