ABSTRACT
The concepts of classical criminology need reexamination to test their relevance in today's fast-changing world. In the United States and Great Britain, subcultural explanations have always been among criminological theories possessing the most robust power to explain gangs. The origins of subcultural theory lie in Edwin Sutherland's differential association concepts as well as in earlier traditions of cultural anthropology. While criminology debated the merits of control, strain, and subcultural theory, other disciplines were taking note of fundamental changes in society and their implications for alienated groups. In the US industrial era, youth gangs were formed and eventually disappeared as their ethnic groups assimilated to American culture and the life-chances of their ethnic groups improved. Most criminological theory saw African Americans as just another ethnic group whose gangs and corresponding high rates of crime would disappear with their completion of the race relations cycle.
