LECTURE - Social Disorganization Theory (Shaw and McKay)

3 key CAUSES of social disorganization

1. Poverty

2. Mobile population (ppl. always moving in and out)

3. Population hetergenity (diverse)

Cultural Disorganization

UNABLE TO DEVELOP A COMMON CULTURE!

1. Diverse Subcultures

   • Lanaguage barriers

   • Some people do not want to talk to others who are different from them . . .

   • They have shared values BUT they just cannot communicate them

2. Obsolete Subcultures

   • People have different methods of problem solving that may not be applicable to new areas (that they move to)

3. Unstable Community

   • As soon as you start breaking down barriers, people start to move

   • MOBILITY!

   • You are always having to start from scratch

4. Irrelvant Societal Culture

   • DIff cultures have diff values

• OVERALL since they cannot communicate, they establish no comon rules or understanding of what is wrong . . .

  • THUS people engage in crime!

Structural Disorganization

INSTITUTIONS THAT AR EUNABLE TO PROVIDE CITIZENS WITH AVENUES TO ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS!

1. Insufficient human and economic resources

   • People may not have enough money

   • Schools underfunded- lack of good teachers or resources to help people succeed

2. Lack of intermeddiate institutions

   • When they do exist, they are underfunded OR poorly ran OR they go under

3. Institutional instability

   • The people who have the skills to advocate for institutions move away

     • THUS the institution falls apart . . .

4. Isolation of institutions

   • Lack of connection between what is going on in each institution

     • Unable to reinforce one another

• OVERALL this causes a lack in the development of strong structures that can advocate for the community or help residents to meet their goals

The Ecology of Crime (Stark)

Why is there crime in certain areas?

(5 charcateristics of areas with high deviance)

1. High density 

   • A lot of people living in a small amount of space (crowded) 

2. High poverty 

   • Highly impoverished area 

3. Mixed use 

   • Residential area, commercial area, and an industrial area- taking place in the same neighbourhood 

4. High transience 

   • Population mobility- people moving in and out 

5. Dilapidation

   • Really run down areas 

NOTE: These 5 factors are thought to influence crime through 4 other factors: 

1. Increasing opportunities for crime

2. Increasing motivation for crime

3. Decreasing social control in that community 

4. Increasing moral cynicism