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Deviance in the Lower Class Adolescent Sub-Culture

NCJ Number
88921
Author(s)
J A Ladner
Date Published
1966
Length
52 pages
Annotation
In lower-class black society, young females are socialized into the role of becoming a woman without a man in the household and of developing coping skills to sustain themselves in the face of many adverse factors, particularly the unavailability of jobs and the subsequent desertion of the male.
Abstract
Thus, these deprived adolescents differ substantially from average adolescents on whom much attention has focused. Study data came from interviews with 7 preadolescent girls aged 7 to 12, 6 adolescents aged 13 to 18, and 10 adolescents aged 14 to 18. The first two groups lived in a large public housing project; the third group lived outside the housing project. The subjects were all black and female. Despite their class differences, the groups engaged in similar activities. They had strong peer group relations. They perceived their immediate environment as protective and the outside world as potentially threatening. They tended to trust their peers more than their parents and to base their activities on group decisions. These activities were limited and primarily considered deviant by the larger society. They included intense sexual activity, riding in hot rods with boy friends and others, going to dances and parties, truancy, stealing and pawning, petty gambling, going to movies, infrequently watching television, playing around the building, visiting one another, and playing on the grounds of the community. Most activities were imitative, using mothers and other females as role models. Their activities were designed to provide either material benefits or fun and entertainment. Attitudes toward stealing and sexual activity showed the integrative functions of the peer group. Footnotes are provided.

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