Differential Opportunity
Definition
Cloward and Ohlin's extension of Merton's strain theory: the type of criminal adaptation that people choose depends not only on blocked legitimate opportunities but on the illegitimate opportunities actually available in their neighbourhood.
- Originators
- Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin
- Builds on
- Merton's strain theory
- Key addition
- Availability of illegitimate opportunity
Common questions
How does differential opportunity extend Merton's original strain theory?+
Merton's strain theory explains that blocked legitimate opportunity creates pressure toward deviance but does not specify which form deviance takes, whereas Cloward and Ohlin argued the specific adaptation, such as joining a criminal gang versus a conflict-oriented one, depends on which illegitimate opportunity structures are actually accessible in a person's neighbourhood.
What are the subcultural types Cloward and Ohlin associated with differential opportunity?+
They described criminal subcultures forming where organised illegitimate opportunity exists, conflict subcultures forming where neither legitimate nor stable illegitimate opportunity is available, and retreatist subcultures forming among those who fail at both legitimate and illegitimate routes, often turning to substance use.
Related terms
- Code of the Street
- Elijah Anderson's term for an informal set of rules governing public behaviour in disadvantaged urban areas. The code centres on the display...
- Honour Culture
- A cultural context in which personal reputation for toughness or willingness to defend oneself against insults is essential to social standing. Researchers...
- Reaction Formation
- A concept Cohen borrowed from psychology to describe the process by which delinquent subcultures do not merely abandon middle-class values but actively...
- Status Frustration
- Cohen's term for the psychological tension experienced by working-class boys who are measured against middle-class standards in school and find themselves repeatedly...
- Subculture
- A group within a larger society that shares a distinctive set of values, norms, symbols, and practices. In criminology, the term usually...