Subcultural Explanations Research Articles

Hispanic Assimilation and Fertility in New Destinations.

This paper evaluates comparative patterns of fertility in new Hispanic destinations and established gateways using pooled cross-sectional data from the 2005-2009 microdata files of the American Community Survey. Changing Hispanic fertility provides a useful indicator of cultural incorporation. Analyses show that high fertility among Hispanics has been driven in part by the Mexican-origin and other new immigrant populations (e.g., noncitizens, those with poor English language skills, etc.). However, high fertility rates among Hispanics - and Mexican-origin Hispanics in particular - cannot be explained entirely by socio-demographic characteristics that place them at higher risk of fertility. For 2005-2009, Hispanic fertility rates were 48 percent higher than fertility among whites; they were roughly 25 percent higher after accounting for differences in key social characteristics, such as age, nativity, county of origin, and education. Contrary to most previous findings of spatial assimilation among in-migrants, fertility rates among Hispanics in new destinations exceeded fertility in established gateways by 18 percent. In the multivariate analyses, Hispanics in new destinations were roughly 10 percent more likely to have had a child in the past year than those living in established gateways. Results are consistent with sub-cultural explanations of Hispanic fertility and raise new questions about the spatial patterning of assimilation and the formation of ethnic enclaves outside traditional settlement areas.

Assessments of Crime Seriousness on an American Indian Reservation

Data from a survey of residents of a Southern Ute Indian reservation in Colorado carried out by Abril (2007) are used to compare perceptions of crime seriousness held by members of an American Indian tribe with those of non-Indians living on the same reservation. There are few significant or substantial differences between the two groups. These findings bear on debates in criminology and the sociology of law regarding the extent to which the content of the criminal law reflects a broad consensus in society or entails the imposition of rules made by and for dominant groups on subordinate groups holding different cultural values and norms. Additional data are deployed to assess subcultural explanations of high levels of interpersonal violence on American Indian reservations.

A test of recent subcultural explanations of White violence in the United States

Recent subcultural theories suggest that real and perceived status loss among some White males as a result of social change during the last four decades–such as increasing gender and racial equity and agricultural job loss–added to the traditional patriarchal and masculine characteristics of this group to create cultural adaptations that led to higher levels of violence. One would thus expect higher homicide rates in areas where these traits are more fully developed and/or where status threats are more strongly felt. To test the efficacy of these claims, this study used OLS regression, and (1) employed census 2000 data and both homicide victimization and arrest data to update and replicate a common model of social structure and homicide, and then (2) added several variables to this baseline model that represented the subcultural traits, conditions, and behaviors outlined by these theories. The analyses yielded little support for these ideas. Thus while they might be appropriate for explaining the variation of the strength of specific subcultures and types of violence (e.g., Far Right wing paramilitary groups and political violence), an extension of these theories to more general interpersonal violence did not appear warranted.

Subcultural explanations and interpretations of school deviance

This article reviews sociological literature on school deviance, here defined as antischool attitudes and behavior. Although these phenomena consist mainly of mild forms of aggression, they can be very consequential for a youth’s life chances. Sociologists have long studied school deviance for its associations with student socioeconomic background, and have hypothesized that such deviance is a manifestation of class-based youth “subcultures.” An older generation of sociologists believed school deviance expresses either the frustrations of unsuccessful students (particularly males) seeking upward social mobility, or the boredom of working class youth to whom schooling appears irrelevant for the future. A newer generation of researchers proposed that this deviance is a quasi-political rebellion by working class youth against schools. However, systematic research reveals that socioeconomic background is not a strong predictor of school deviance; being male and doing poorly in school are better predictors. I evaluate both generations of research using these findings and criticisms of their theoretical logic. I then propose an alternative subcultural model that places more emphasis on the changing social condition of youth. This review ends with conjectures on the future of school deviance.

The Grass is Always Greener: Explaining Rural and Urban Differences in Marijuana Use

This paper investigates residential differences in self-reported marijuana use among adolescents and young adults in a national sample. Data from the first five waves of the National Youth Survey are examined using a pooled time-series cross-sectional research design. Based on these data, significant residential differences in self-reported marijuana use are found. Specifically, rural youths report lower levels of marijuana use relative to their non-rural counterparts (i.e., suburban or urban residents). Hypotheses from determinist, compositional and subcultural explanations of rural-urban behavioral differences are discussed and tested empirically. While variables from each theoretical model explain some variance in marijuana use, only variables from subcultural theory can fully account for differences in the marijuana smoking behavior patterns of rural and non-rural residents.

Applying a subculture of violence thesis to an ongoing criminal lifestyle

This article describes our case study of a random violent abduction and murder in a rural part of southeastern Kentucky located in the Appalachian mountains. The offender, who was raised in this rural and isolated part of Kentucky, had a long history of violence and had been socialized into what we identify as a subculture of violence that is still found today in homogeneous and isolated pockets of some Appalachian regions (among other areas). In our description and analysis of his ongoing criminal way of life and this specific act of violence, we rely on Miller's (1958) subcultural explanations. We particularly use Miller's focal concerns, that is, daily behavioral patterns that are reflected in this offender's culturally based and lower class lifestyle and his violent subcultural traits.

Economic Sources of Homicide: Reestimating the Effects of Poverty and Inequality

A tradition of research has consistently found that poverty is a major economic source of homicide. Two studies have recently presented findings that call this research tradition into question. The studies are reviewed, and it is argued that these contradictory findings are the result of an incorrect specification of the relationship between poverty and the homicide rate. Revised estimates of the effect of poverty are reported which show that it is a significant positive predictor of the homicide rate for a sample of SMSAs (N=125) when the nonlinearform of the relationship is taken into account. That effect, however, appears to vary by the regional location of SMSAs, that is, whether they are in the South or non-South. The implications of the findings for economic and subcultural explanations of homicide are briefly discussed.

Is there a constant fraction of recognized deviance in organizations?

Do administrators tend to develop working definitions of “normal” rates of deviance for the type of organization they control? School principals’ estimates of the rates of deviance for their schools were found to be remarkably uniform across a nationwide sample of 7,289 public or private schools encompassing various grade levels and socioeconomic mixtures of pupils. Fully 94 percent of the pupils in the sample attend schools where the deviance rate is estimated to be less than 10 percent. Structural and subcultural explanations for uniformity of principals’ perceptions are suggested.

Adolescent Subcultures of Violence

Wolfgang and Ferracuti's Subculture of Violence thesis and Matza's theory of “drift” may be regarded as competing subcultural explanations of violence. Comments are offered on studies examining propositions derived from both subcultural theses, and another body of evidence is analyzed. Ball-Rokeach's recent rejection of Wolfgang and Ferracuti's thesis is contradicted by a reinterpretation of her data and by the new data; for as both theses contend, violence is more likely among adolescent members of deviant subcultures and among adolescents with machismo or adult values than among other adolescents. Contrary to both theories, adolescent violence may result more from amorality than from a confracultural morality (Wolfgang and Fer-racuti) or neutralization of conventional beliefs (Matza). Still violence is more likely among boys holding unconventional beliefs than among other boys. Also, poor relationships with parents or teachers are more important than class in insulating against conventional values.

Privilege, deprivation, and children's moral behavior: An experimental clarification of the role of investments

A previous experiment ( Stephenson & White, 1968) showed that status deprivation led ten-year-old schoolboys to cheat in order to gain a prize. The present experiment was designed to test the hypothesis that maintenance of legitimate or “justified” privilege, as well as compensation for illegitimate or “unjustified” deprivation, can motivate delinquent actions. Privilege and deprivation were manipulated in the context of a model racing game, in which privileged boys raced the cars while deprived boys simply replaced them on the track. Justly Privileged and Justly Deprived groups were told that they had done well or badly on a word-making pretest. Unjustly Privileged and Unjustly Deprived groups, having been given the same information at the outset, were told that a mistake had been made and that their positions should have been reversed. Control subjects were told that, since they had done equally well on the pretest, they had been randomly assigned to the two roles. All subjects were given the opportunity to obtain prizes by cheating on a quiz. As predicted, cheating was greatest in the Justly Privileged and in the Unjustly Deprived groups. The implications for Homans' theory of distributive justice and for subcultural explanations of delinquency are discussed.