The Empirical Status of the Subculture of Violence Thesis

This article reviews some of the existing literature bearing on the subculture of violence thesis (Wolfgang, l958), reports the results of a re-analysis of survey data collected for •the President's Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence,and presents new data on peer esteem and social psychological correlates of fighting among males in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is concluded that although the subculture of violence thesis has not been definitively tested, the weight of the evidence is against it