ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the core arguments of David Matza and Gresham Sykes and assesses the impact of their work on contemporary theory and research, especially modern subcultural accounts of crime and delinquency. There is the issue of today's "hardcore" street offenders, who are said to be quite unlike the juvenile delinquents that were the focus of Matza and Sykes. Matza and Sykes challenged the view that delinquents unconditionally approve of acts such as violence and theft. The subculture of delinquency reflects subterranean values; that is, values that exist just under the surface of conventionality. In the case of subterranean values, offenders hold values that increase the appeal of certain delinquent and conventional lines of action. Matza and Sykes focused on the subterranean values of excitement, easy money, and aggressive masculinity—value orientations that were prominent in the delinquency literature at the time.
