Understanding New Right explanations for deviant youth subcultures

New Right explanations for youth deviance focus on problem families, particularly one-parent families, which Charles Murray suggests are a key part of an underclass. Children from these families are believed to lack fathers, leading to poor socialisation regarding societal norms. Murray argues that this inadequate discipline from single mothers results in behaviours such as frequent truancy or exclusion from school.

Evaluating New Right explanations

Main criticisms of Murray's approach

• Murray is criticised for failing to acknowledge that problem families are often undermined by poverty, rather than just the absence of fathers.
• His approach involves scapegoating or labelling people in poverty and the long-term unemployed, encouraging negative treatment by media and state institutions.
• Critics argue he fails to present convincing evidence that a criminal underclass truly exists as a distinct subculture in the UK, with its own unique values and norms.

Alternative perspectives: Rex and Tomlinson on poverty and shared values

Key points from Rex and Tomlinson

• Survey evidence suggests that people living in poverty subscribe to the same sorts of values as everybody else.
• Their poverty is often caused by factors beyond their control, such as economic recession, globalisation, and government policies.