CJC 201 - SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY (Chapter 8)

3 Factors of rapid socioecological change

1. INCREASED Industrialization

• Agrarian-to-industrial shift

2. INCREASED Urbanization

• Chicago - 1833: 4,100 → 1890: 1 million → 1910: 2+ million

• Increased concentration of working class in slums

3. INCREASED Immigration

• Increased ethnic groups leads to increased discrimination & increased conflict

What is crime a product of within an area?

SOCIAL ECOLOGY

• Economic disadvantage, community cohesion, and social stability

Concentric Zones Theory

• Urban development is socially patterned (i.e., not random)

  • Grow around commercial, political, & cultural areas

  • Rapid expansion & increased immigration are highly problematic

What is the macro-level of Concentric Zones Theory?

• Social conditions foster social problems (i.e., disease, disorder, conflict, & delinquency/crime)

  • Social conditions: Increased social disorganization & decreased social organization

• Focus on neighborhood-/community-level

What are the conceptual components (5 Zones) of the Concentric Zones Theory

1. Central Business District

2. Zone in Transition

   1. Recent immigrant groups

   2. Slum housing, industrial factories, and abandoned buildings

3. Working-Class Zone

   1. Multi-family tenements

4. Residential Zone

   1. Single-family homes (i.e., yards & garages)

5. Commuter Zone

   1. Wealthy suburbs

Zone in Transition Definition

• Housing

  • Slums/ghetto (i.e., old, in poor condition, & no maintenance)

  • Unpleasant living conditions

    • Active & abandoned industrial factories adjacent

• Recent immigrant groups

  • Increased poor

  • Increased language & cultural issues

  • Increased discrimination & increased fear

Social Disorganization Theory

• Mapping delinquency (i.e., incidents & residences)

  • Increased delinquency concentrated in certain areas or “zones"

    • Increased slums around the CBD (i.e., zone in transition)

  • Increased delinquent zones are stable over time

    • Regardless of neighborhood’s change in race/ethnicity

What are the characteristics of areas with increased social disorganization

1. INCREASED Residential instability/mobility

2. INCREASED Immigrant populations/heterogeneity

3. DECREASED Socioeconomic status (SES)/poverty

INCREASED Residential insability/mobility DEFINITION

• Barrier to community integration & development of social ties

• Decreased weakened social ties → decreased informal social control → increased delinquency

INCREASED Population heterogeneity DEFINITION

• Increased community isolation (i.e., immigrant & ethnic enclaves)

• Decreased community communication, solidarity, & cohesion → prevents establishment of community consensus

DECREASED SES/poverty DEFINITION

• Lack of resources (i.e., decreased economic, social, & political capital) necessary for effective community organization

How does increased social disorganization → increased delinquency?

• Inability of community to organization effectiveely to prevent social problems

• Breakdown of social institutions

  • Family, school, church, & businesses

• Social problems/crime become normative & tolerated by residents

INCREASED Social disorganization → DECREASED INFORMAL social control → Increased delinquency

What are the policy consequences during Post-WWII America?

• Increased White Flight

  • The GI Bill & inexpensive mortgage loans + school desegregation

  • Relocation of manufacturing industry + increased expressways & new schools

• Increased Concentrated minority communities

  • Increased public housing for the poor + “redlining” the working middle class

  • Departure of industry + decreased public transportation + decreased tax revenue → increased concentrated disadvantage

  • Increased social inequality → increased violent crime

Collective Efficacy Definition and the Conceptual Components

• Perceived ability of residents to activate informal social control

  • 1a. Social cohesion among neighbors &

  • 1b. Mutual support - willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good

  • 2. Shared expectations for social control

Concentrated Disadvantage Definition

• (STRUCTURAL) Residential segregation & social isolation

Social Disorganization

• (STRUCTURAL) Poverty, instability, & heterogeneity

What happened during the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project?

• 1952 - Housing project built

  • 33 Buildings, housing 12,000 people

    • Pruitt = whites

    • Igoe = blacks

• Issues

  • Population & business shifts

  • Maintenance funded by residents, but a decrease in residents

• 1972 - 1st buildings razed/demolished

Code of the Street Definition

• Increased crime concentrations in inner city, minority communities

• Inner city, minority communities

  • Increased joblessness, racism, drugs/gangs, alienations, & hopelessness

  • Increased mistrust in police & CJS

  • Ghetto circumstances so strong, oppositional culture emerges

    • Subcultural value of violence - as a survival mechanism

What are the conceptual components of “decent” families/culture

• Increased concentrated disadvantage + lack of role models

  • Accept mainstream values:

    • Increased polite & considerate of others + Increased authority respect

    • Increased value of hard work, education, religious faith, self-reliance

    • Increased supervision of children, strict, fair

What are the conceptual components of “street” families/culture

• Increased disorganized families

• Cynicism towards mainstream values

  • Decreased consideration of others

  • Decreased value of education

  • Decreased coping with parenthood difficulties, decreased supervision of children

  • Increased aggressive socializaiton of children into street code

Code of the Street Conceptual Components

• Set of informal rules governing interpersonal public behavior

• Regulates use of violence & ways to respond if “challenged”

  • Must have “nerve”

    • Throw the first punch, take what you want, no fear of harm/death

  • Learned for survival in the streets

Currency of “respect” Conceptual Components

• Being treated right or being grated one’s “props”

• Respect is hard-won, but easily lost, therefore, must always be guarded

• Code provides a framework for negotiating respect

  • Daily process of earning respect via physical, verbal, and symbolic communication

• With right amount of respect, a person can avoid being bothered in public → if bothered, the person may feel “dissed”

Self-image based on “juice” & masculinity Conceptual Components

• Outlook & attitude

  • Don’t see a promising future, live for the moment

  • Fatalism (i.e., luck + dereased fear of injury/death)

• Built around possession of things

  • Take what you want

  • Willingness to protect those things

• Value aggressiveness, physicality, & ruthlessness/street smarts

  • Raising yourself up depends on ability to put someone down

  • Vigilant against transgressions or appearance of transgression (retaliatory violence is an appropriate reaction (i.e., not a crime)