In Melbournes north, seven teenagers were arrested over a string of violent robberies. A woman reported waking at 4am when her front door was smashed in and she was surrounded by five men in her bedroom who threatened her and demanded money. She was among several of North Melbournes residents who fell victim to the group of pipe, machete, and club wielding teenagers. The police arrested the seven teenagers in the final victims home after a crime spree which spanned nearly three hours on a Friday night. Of the seven assailants, six were identified as males and one was female, all between the ages of 14 and 19. The list of crimes they were charged with included aggravated burglary, armed robbery and theft of a motor vehicle in addition to one of the teens resisting arrest before being tracked down by a police dog (The Age, 2017).
A culture is a lifestyle which encompasses the values and ideologies of a particular community, at a particular time. Subcultural theory focusses on people within larger cultures who stray from the beliefs of the majority and the rules of a society (Newman, 2013). Many criminologists, such as Frederick M Thrasher and Albert Cohen, believed that subcultures were the result of youths growing up in underprivileged areas (Newburn, 2013). This caused the gangs to substitute the common activities that were practised by the more privileged, for delinquent activities, such as fighting or stealing alcohol and cigarettes. They believed that the gangs did this in an attempt to find excitement while growing up with limitations. Delinquent subcultures are predominately present among working class boys and develop when material deprivation and cultural deprivation lead to failures in the education system (Revise Sociology, 2016). Stuck at the bottom of the socioeconomic hierarchy, the boys experience status frustration and a dissatisfaction with society. Status frustration occurs when groups of youths realise that they will never be able to achieve the normative goals of…