1. Cloward & Ohlin’s Differential Opportunity Theory
Delinquent subcultures flourish in lower-class areas because opportunities for illegitimate and conventional success are equally lacking.
Members of an outlaw motorcycle group photographed leaving a courthouse.
©2012 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
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2. Delinquency and Opportunity
Two key assumptions of this theory:
Blocked opportunities are related to delinquency.
The type of lower-class gang depends on the type of neighbourhood in which it emerges.
©2012 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
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3. Differential Opportunity Theory
Gang types:
Criminal gangs: develop in areas where conventional and illegitimate values are integrated.
Conflict gangs: develop in neighbourhoods characterized by transience and instability, where there are few opportunities to get ahead in organized criminal activities.
Retreatist gangs: members of these gangs are double failures as they have been unsuccessful in both the legitimate and illegitimate worlds.
©2012 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
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4. Gang Presence in Canada
Source: 2006 CISC Annual Report on Organized Crime in Canada. Reproduced with permission of the Ministry of Government Works and Public Services, Canada 2008.
©2012 McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.
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