ABSTRACT
The topic of schooling and delinquency is a ripe target for the criticisms that both Musgrove and the author have made of the sociology of education. The contribution of sociologists, in both theory and research, to the study of crime and delinquency has a long and distinguished history. The author selects for discussion five analytically distinct theoretical positions. First, cultural transmission theory (sometimes called cultural deviance and culture conflict theories), which is strongly associated with the names of Sutherland and W.B. Miller, and in this country J.B. Mays (1954, 1962). Second, control theory, grounded in the work of Durkheim, Thrasher and Hirschi. Third, strain theory, most of which derives from the work of Merton (1957), and his reworking of Durkheim’s concept of anomie. Fourth, subcultural theory, which is again linked with Cohen’s work. Fifth, there is labelling theory, which has been popularized in the work of Howard Becker (1963).
