Alternative Means

For example, in schools where this group are largely considered to be failures (deprived of the status that comes with educational success and the achievement of qualifications), status deprivation was resolved by the formation of primary groups (the most common form being gangs). Such subcultural groups represented an alternative setting for the achievement of status, in the sense that members of the gang, for example, could award each other intra-group status (which can, of course, take many forms - the ability to fight the best, the ability to wind teachers up or simply the ability to push school rules as far as you could without being caught or punished).