Delinquency and Drift by David Matza

Author:David Matza [Matza, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Criminology
ISBN: 9781351523028
Google: ePdKDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-02-06T05:16:26+00:00

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The Sense of Injustice

THE major function of the subcultural views thus far described is to extend the area of personal irresponsibility.Given these views, delinquency is permissible when responsibility, the moral bind between the actor and legal norms, is neutralized. The sense of irresponsibility isthe immediate condition of drift. Beneath the immediate condition is a state of readiness. The delinquent is prepared to convert irresponsibility to freedom from moral constraint because his subculture is pervaded by another and more profound condition of neutralization. This additional condition— a sense of injustice—does not ordinarily serve as an immediate condition of drift. Instead, it normally provides a simmering resentment—a setting of antagonism and antipathy—within which the variety of extenuating circumstances may abrogate the moral bind to law. Occasionally, however, a sufficient, profound sense of injustice may direcdy elicit the feeling of being pushed around and thus the mood of fatalism.

The subculture of delinquency is integrated into the wider cultural order, but in a tenuous way. It is partially incorporated and partially alienated. Ambivalence to law is one manifestation of its tenuous incorporation. As discussed in the previous chapter, this ambivalence is reflected in its basic agreement with the central substance of criminal law and disagreement with legal constructions regarding the mental element. Additionally, subcultural ambivalence is manifested in a distinction between the legal system and its agents—the one receiving general approval, the other disapproval. The subculture of delinquency shows antagonism to the law, but this antagonism is primarily directed to the officials who man the system. Antagonism takes the form of a jaundiced view of officials, a view which holds that their primary function is not the administration of justice, but the perpetration of injustice.

The moral bind of law is loosened whenever a sense of injustice prevails. Law, whatever its guiding principle, trial by ordeal or due process, binds members of society to the extent that it maintains a semblance of even-handed administration. Guiding principles may vary but, whatever their substance, persistentviolation of their spirit occurs at the peril of alienating the subjects of law and order. A legal system based on trial by ordeal is tenable, but one in which the internal logic of that system is regularly violated would to that extent lose the loyalty of its subjects. The legitimacy granted to law would be withdrawn.

Legal order is not simply a system of coercion.1 The maintenance of law depends partly on its legitimacy. Among the basic elements of legitimate order is the belief on the part of subjects that some semblance of justice prevails. The common sense of Western traditions was well formulated in Augustine's rhetorical question, “What are states without justice but robber bands enlarged?” The cry of injustice isamong the most fateful utterances of which man is capable—and no less consequential when expressed by schoolboys. It is tantamount to asserting that chaos or tyranny reign instead of order and society.

The sensing of injustice is a normal occurrence in any setting. However, its perception is heightened in the subculture of delinquency. The subculture aggravates and accentuates the sense of injustice among its adherents.

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