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Working class boys who are frustrated as they fail to gain status for success at school instead seek to gain status with their peers through acts of daring such as vandalism.
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Delinquent behaviour is not the result of a distinctive subculture with alternative values. Instead it is an expression of the working class values that easily lead to crime. These include toughness, fatalism, desire for autonomy and excitement.
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People unable to achieve success legitimately may join a criminal, conflict or retreatist subculture, depending on their neighbourhood and own personality.
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Young people wish to escape from the constraints of adults and may be easily led into trouble by their peers. They are rarely intent on a deviant career and become law abiding citizens again when adult responsibilities loom.
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Adolescent males in working class areas often get into trouble because they are hanging about in the streets looking for fun. This sometimes leads to aw breaking that is highly visible so results in arrests. There is no evidence of subcultural values, simply a desire to relieve boredom
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Participant observation showed that casual marijuana smokers of Notting Hill formed distinctive subculture of hard drugs when police activity put them under pressure.
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Left wing study of deviancy amplification. Seaside fights between Mods and Rockers were exaggerated by a press with little other news. This encouraged troublemakers to join in and increased hostility between the groups.
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Marxist study of working class lads who expected to follow their fathers into manual occupations. They saw no point in academic qualifications and formed an anti-school subculture.
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Left Realists identified three causes of crime as subculture, marginalisation and relative deprivation.
