Subcultures, Deviant

Abstract Deviant subcultures are sets of cultural traits that differ from social norms, or groups that display such traits. Subcultural analyses of deviance and crime have been an important dimension of sociology and criminology since the 1950s, providing insight into the group nature of much delinquency, deviance, and crime; the transmission of values conducive to deviance; and the many ways cultural variation relates to the nature and explanation of deviance, implicating social control and status relations as well as social problems. Subcultural analysis has become increasingly interdisciplinary, contributing not just to the understanding of gangs, street crime, organized crime, drug use, and criminal recidivism, but also culture, inequality and status, youth and generational relations, self and identity, music and fashion. The breadth of subcultural analysis contributes to the understanding of deviance and crime, benefiting from consideration of issues including self and identity, schooling and socialization, leisure and consumption, social control, and the ecological and cultural dimensions of inequality. The deviant subcultures literature is an ongoing interdisciplinary and international endeavor, contributing to the understanding of both deviance and culture by exploring how the distinction between the deviant and the conventional overlaps with other cultural distinctions such as those of status and social identity.