ABSTRACT
The greater prevalence of youthful delinquency in the poorer urban areas has long been made a subject for study and interpretation. Delinquency is highest in the deteriorating and overcrowded areas into which in-migrant groups, generally subject to some form of ethnic or racial discrimination, have penetrated, causing a shifting of some part of the earlier populations. Some features of Cohen's theory are certainly significant and give a lead to further advances in the interpretation of delinquent behavior. He emphasizes the effect of frustration, of baffled aspiration, of the falling back on illegitimate means to enhance the quest for status within a peer group in an unpropitious environment. Delinquency occurs in every area, among the youth of every social class, to an extent sufficient to refute the charge that it stems from the "culture" peculiar to a lower social class.
