Cloward, Richard A. (1926–2001)

Richard Cloward was a world-renowned scholar and social activist who received numerous awards for his research and his unfailing commitment to helping the poor and oppressed. Throughout his career, Cloward conducted scholarly research on and actively participated in projects geared toward improving the quality of life and alleviating social problems that plague many impoverished communities. More specifically, his work focused on issues surrounding gangs and juvenile delinquency, welfare rights, voter registration, political participation and social movements of the poor, and labor issues concerning worker-employer relations. For his professional accomplishments and contributions to social work scholarship, Cloward received numerous lifetime achievement awards from nationally recognized organizations, including the Society for the Study of Social Problems (1991), the Mandel School of Social Work at Case-Western Reserve University (1992), the American Sociological Association (1995, 2000), the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (1995), the National Association of Social Workers (1999), and the Council on Social Work Education (2001). He also received the Dennis Carroll Award (1965) from the International Society of Criminology for his work on the book Delinquency and Opportunity (Cloward and Ohlin, 1960), the C. Wright Mills Award (1972) from the Society for the Study of Social Problems for Regulating the Poor, and the Bryant Spann Memorial Prize from the Eugene V. Debs Foundation for two articles on voter registration, “Trying to Break Down the Barriers” and “How to Get Out the Vote in 1988.” Additionally, Cloward received the Jim Waltermire Award of the National Secretaries of State (1994) and the Tides Foundation Award (1996) for distinguished public service.

Although Cloward earned national and international acclaim for his contributions to the field of social work, he was best known in the fields of criminology and delinquency for his work on differential opportunity theory. This theory is rooted intellectually in Robert K. Merton's theory of anomie, Albert Cohen's research on delinquent subcultures, Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay's theory of social disorganization, and Edwin Sutherland's theory of differential association. Cloward introduced the notion of the [Page 64]“illegitimate opportunity structure” in his 1959 American Sociological Review article, “Illegitimate Means, Anomie, and Deviant Behavior,” and noted that it was just as important in shaping delinquency as the legitimate opportunity structure, which was the focus of Merton's theory of anomie. In 1960, Cloward and coauthor Lloyd Ohlin discussed the illegitimate opportunity structure concept more fully in Delinquency and Opportunity: A Theory of Delinquent Gangs. The authors acknowledged that access to legitimate opportunities for achieving culturally valued goals was affected by social position in that few opportunities were available for juveniles in lower-class, urban communities. However, they pointed out that differential opportunities also exist in terms of access to illegitimate means for achieving cultural goals. The result was the development of distinct deviant adaptations or delinquent gang subcultures.

Cloward and Ohlin identified three delinquent subcultures. Criminal subcultures were most likely to develop in communities characterized by a high degree of integration between criminal and conventional opportunity structures. In these areas, youth gangs largely functioned to prepare youths for adult involvement in organized crime. Successful adult criminals would serve as role models for juveniles, and through these associations, youths would acquire the necessary skills and normative understandings that are favorable to law violation as well as the personal contacts that can help them, such as crooked politicians or police officers who can be bribed. In these subcultures, illegal activities would primarily be profit-oriented and involve little violence.

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