Key Figures

Park & Burgess

• 🏙 Developed the Concentric Zone Model (1925)

• Saw cities as ecosystems with zones of transition where crime thrives due to instability

Shaw & McKay

• 🗺 Mapped juvenile delinquency in Chicago

• Found that crime persisted in certain neighborhoods regardless of who lived there

• Created the original Social Disorganization Theory

Sampson & Groves

• 📊 Tested the theory with data

• Identified 4 key structural factors:

  • Poverty

  • Residential mobility

  • Ethnic heterogeneity

  • Family disruption

Reiss & Elliott

⚠ Criticized the theory for circular reasoning—using crime as both cause and effect

Sampson & Raudenbush

• 🤝 Introduced collective efficacy: trust + willingness to intervene

• Showed how social cohesion reduces crime

Byrne & Sampson

• 🏚 Emphasized political and economic forces like redlining and housing policy

• Argued that structural inequality shapes disorganization

William Julius Wilson

• 💼 Focused on concentrated poverty, joblessness, and urban isolation

• His work influenced how we understand the deeper roots of neighborhood disadvantage

Albert Cohen

• Theory: Status Frustration & Delinquent Subcultures

• Contribution: Working-class boys form subcultures that invert middle-class values

Durkheim

• Concepts: Anomie, Mechanical vs. Organic Solidarity

• Contribution: Crime is normal and necessary; social cohesion changes with societal complexity

Merton

• Theory: Strain Theory

• Contribution: People adapt to strain (blocked goals) through modes like innovation, ritualism, rebellion

Cloward & Ohlin

• Theory: Differential Opportunity Theory

• Contribution: Type of delinquent subculture depends on access to illegitimate opportunities (criminal, conflict, retreatist)

Hirschi

• Theory: Social Bond Theory

• Contribution: Strong bonds (attachment, commitment, involvement, belief) prevent delinquency

Sutherland

• Theory: Differential Association

• Contribution: Criminal behavior is learned through interaction with others