ABSTRACT
This chapter examines stakes in conformity that are built up by pursuit of, and by a desire to achieve, conventional goals. The stance toward aspirations taken here is virtually opposite to that taken in strain theories, where conventional aspirations are typically seen as a source of motivation to delinquency. The "adult" activities, then, are at least in part indicative of lack of commitment to the educational system; they reflect the fact that adulthood has been prematurely obtained—or claimed—by the adolescent. The adolescent may be located on three career lines, all of which are interrelated, all of which have different beginning points, and all of which are surrounded by conventional evaluations of appropriateness with respect to timing and by conventional evaluations of success or failure. These career lines are the educational, the occupational, and, for want of a better term, the passage to adult status.
