1. Social Disorganization Theory

2. The Feel of a Place
You are riding the subway alone in a major city that you have never been to before. After three or four stops, you realize that you are on the wrong train and are lost. You decide to get off at the next stop to ask someone for help, but only if it looks like you are in a good neighborhood – otherwise you are getting back on the train.
What cues would you use to determine whether you were in a good or bad neighborhood? What would each cue tell you about the neighborhood?
Great for generating participation

3. Understanding the Spatial Distribution of Crime
Why do crime rates differ across neighborhoods within a city?
Is neighborhood crime due solely to the kinds of people who live there, or is there something about the neighborhood environment that fosters crime?

4. Chicago School Social ecology of Park and Burgess
Inspired by plant and animal ecology
Based on competition for space
Studied Chicago, early-mid 20th century
Rapid growth due to immigration, urbanization, and industrialization
Interested in the moral effects of these changes

5. Chicago School Model Concentric zone model CBD Zone of TransitionV
CBD
Zone of Transition
Working Class Zone
Residential Zone
Commuter Zone IV
III II I
Cities expand radially outward
as people compete for good space

6. The Study of Crime in Chicago Shaw and McKay
Mapped addresses of delinquents
Findings
Crime was highest in zone of transition (Zone 2), lowest in commuter zone
High crime persisted in Zone 2 regardless of which ethnic group lived there
Groups that left Zone 2 committed less crime, groups that entered committed more crime
Same pattern for other social problems

7. Shaw and McKay’s Conclusion
Place matters!
Crime was NOT to due to inferior biology or ethnic pathology
The causes of crime were in the place

8. Why the Zone of Transition?
Poverty
Ethnic heterogeneity (foreign born)
Residential mobility (to other zones)
Disorder, incivilities
Competing ways of life – subcultures
Led to social disorganization, which led to crime

9. The Social Disorganization Model
Poverty
Residential Mobility
Ethnic Heterogeneity
Social
Disorganization
Crime
Criminal
Subculture

10. What exactly is social disorganization?
Sparse local networks, weak social ties
Low organizational participation
Lack of cohesion and trust among neighbors
Result:
Inability to solve problems and pursue goals
Parents less able to socialize and control youth
Breakdown in surveillance

11. Socialization & Social Control
The goal of socialization is to get youth to learn, accept, and live by conventional norms
In what ways do “good” neighborhoods enhance the socialization of youth?
In what ways do “bad” neighborhoods undermine the socialization of youth?

12. Policy Implications?

13. Chicago Area Project Crime prevention and treatment
Try to get residents to join together to improve their own neighborhoods, solve local problems, and create social organization
Clean up disorder
Recreation programs for youth
Increase influence over politicians
Mixed results – difficult to create social organization

14. Recent Developments Systemic model of crime control
Private controls – friends, family, and neighbors – avoid disapproval
Parochial controls – schools, churches, and voluntary associations – extends the reach of neighbors’ awareness, also surveillance
Public controls – ability to leverage government resources (get more police, change policing methods)

15. Criminal Justice Policy
Disorganized communities are the largest contributors to the prison population
Mostly due to tough drug laws
Are there downsides to incarceration policies that focus on drug crime?
Can removing criminals from a community be bad for the community?

16. Incarceration and Poor, Minority Communities
At least 10% of African Americans are under some kind of criminal justice control
5-10% of African American men ages 20 to 50 are currently in jail or prison
In a single year, around 5% of African American men ages 16 to 34 go to prison
“Some communities have experienced war-level casualties in parenting-age men”
Rose and Clear, 1998

17. The Downsides of Drug Incarcerations for Poor Areas
Increases residential mobility
Disrupts neighborhood social networks
Removes “breadwinners” from families
Opens space for new recruits
Criminal record limits employment
Increases poverty, lure of drug trade
Street code reinforced in prison
Increase fear, lack of cohesion