Illegitimate Means
Definition
The second variable Cloward and Ohlin added to strain theory: the local supply of an organised illegal route to success, such as an established criminal economy, which is not equally available everywhere.
Related terms
- Conflict Subculture
- A delinquent subculture that forms where neither legitimate nor stable illegitimate opportunity exists, producing gang violence as a substitute route to status...
- Criminal Subculture
- A delinquent subculture that forms where a stable illegitimate opportunity structure exists, channelling youth into organised, income-generating crime such as theft rings...
- Retreatist Subculture
- A delinquent subculture built around drug use and withdrawal, made up of double failures who cannot succeed through legitimate means or gain...
- Cloward and Ohlin
- Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin, who set out differential opportunity theory in their 1960 book Delinquency and Opportunity: A Theory of Delinquent...
- Differential Opportunity
- Cloward and Ohlin's extension of Merton's strain theory: the type of criminal adaptation that people choose depends not only on blocked legitimate...
- Differential Opportunity Structure
- The idea that access to illegitimate means of achieving success, like access to legitimate means, varies systematically by neighbourhood and social position...
- Double Failure
- Cloward and Ohlin's term for someone who fails to reach success goals through both the legitimate opportunity structure and the illegitimate one,...
- Integrated Strain Theory
- Cloward and Ohlin's own label for their model, reflecting how it welds together Merton's strain theory, Sutherland's differential association, and Shaw and...
Explained in these topics
- Cloward and Ohlin's Differential Opportunity Theory (UGC-NET Unit III)
- Differential Opportunity TheoryThe skills, contacts, and criminal infrastructure, such as an established fencing network or an organised numbers racket, needed to succeed at crime, as distin...