Delinquents in schools: a test for the legitimacy of authority 1

In the recent sociology on juvenile delinquents, the school is characterized as the major instrument and arena of villainy. Cloward and Ohlin suggest that lower class delinquents suffer from unequal ‘access to educational facilities’, ² Cohen points to their ‘failures in the classroom’, ³ and Miller and Kvaraceus argue that a ‘conflict of culture’ between school administrators and lower-class students is precipitating delinquent behaviour. ⁴ Although there are many differences between contemporary sociological portraits of the lower-class juvenile delinquent, the same model of his educational problem is used by all authors. Regardless of whether the delinquent is ambitious and capable, ⁵ ambitious and incapable ⁶ , or unambitious and incapable, ⁷ the school is sketched as a monolith of middle-class personnel against which he fares badly.