ABSTRACT
Theoretical advances in the 1940s contributed to the development of subcultural theories of delinquency in the 1950s, drawing largely from Merton and Sutherland. Building from what he perceived as flaws with Merton's and Sutherland's theories, A. K. Cohen explored the nature of criminal and delinquent subcultures among boys. Criticism for Cohen's research was initiated by Walter Miller, where Miller argued that lower-class culture is criminogenic. Using data from an urban area three-year project, with male and female, black and white as well as early, middle and late adolescent subjects. The subcultural theorists opened the possibilities that lower-class opportunities were important in relation to delinquency. They also questioned the need for such inequalities. David Matza declared that subcultural theories completely misunderstood the causes of delinquency. Jack Katz has criticized Matza's theory as being too dependent on positivist sciences. Katz argues that correlations of criminality with "background data" are useless for understanding the "foreground" phenomena, such as the "seductions" of committing crime.
