Search for Status

This chapter explains the dominant features of working-class culture. In particular, the ways in which status and prestige can be gained among the adult male population, and the fact that the hoods are excluded from these paths to power, are explored. This chapter also examines the relationships between the hoods and the influence of their friends and associates on their offending. The analysis here is framed in terms of the understandings that both the hoods and ex-hoods either have or had of their antisocial behavior. Thus studying the world of the hoods in their own terms opens the way to an increased understanding of their behavior. In the process, the data revealed that rather than being anomic the hoods do adhere to a set of norms. The challenge remains to understand the hoods' subculture and make sense of their behaviors.

Environmental Science · Sociology and Norbert Elias