social disorganization theories and taxi driver

Chicago school of sociology

A community of scholars at the University of Chicago in the first half of the twentieth century who introduced social disorganization theories of crime and laid the foundations for urban sociology.

Social organism

A conception of the city, community, and region as more than a geographical phenomenon, but as a living social entity, as described by Robert E. Park.

Human ecology

A theory grounded in the idea that dynamic social conditions of the city, including population shifts and immigration, are the source of crime, resembling ecosystems of the natural world.

Prohibition

The period from $1919$ to $1933$ during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol for consumption were illegal, contributing to a wave of crime and delinquency.

Social disorganization theories

A criminological tradition arguing that crime is rooted in the social environment and the city itself, rather than individual biological or psychological factors.

The City ($1925$)

A volume by Robert Park and Ernest Burgess that is central to the social disorganization perspective and describes the city as a series of concentric zones.

Concentric Zone Model

A diagram representing the growth of a city as it radiates and extends outward into five distinct rings or zones.

Zone I

The Central Business District, identified as the epicenter of the city.

Zone II (Transitional Zone)

An area characterized by population flux, deteriorated housing, abandoned buildings, and the breakdown of traditional norms; the primary area of interest for Chicago school theorists.

Zone III

The Working Class Zone, characterized by single-family tenements.

Zone IV

The Residential Zone, characterized by single-family homes with yards and garages.

Zone V

The Commuter Zone, consisting of the suburbs on the periphery of the city.

Invasion and Succession

Naturalistic terms used to characterize regional population shifts in which new groups move into zones while previous residents migrate out.

Radial expansion

The process by which the city grows and extends outward from its center.

Ethnographies

Deep observational studies used by Chicago school researchers to map human behavior and social interaction up close in actual social settings.

Travis Bickle

The antihero of the $1976$ film Taxi Driver, used to illustrate the assumptions and worldview of social disorganization theories.

The Great Migration

The movement of recently freed slaves north, which, along with immigration, shifted Chicago's population from thousands in the late $1800s$ to more than $2$ million by the $1920s$.

Criminogenic force

The idea from the Chicago school that the city environment, particularly ghettos and slums, stimulates criminal acts among otherwise normal individuals.

Chicago school theorists described Zone $II$ as an __________, or an area existing between more organized regions.

interstitial area

Burgess identified empirical markers or "indexes" of disorganization, including __________, crime, disorder, vice, insanity, and suicide.

disease

Shaw and McKay found that delinquency rates were associated with population density and transition, not __________, ethnicity, or any specific group characteristic.

race

The process of total and continuous turnovers in population within neighborhoods is termed __________.

residential succession

Clifford Shaw's volume titled __________, published in $1930$, established that delinquents were normal in their intelligence and psychology.

Jack-Roller

Criminologist Walter Reckless used the term __________ to refer to dwellings in Zone $II$.

immoral flats

Paul Cressey described transitional neighborhoods as experiencing the "triumph of the __________ in social relations."

impersonal

The __________, launched by Shaw, established $22$ neighborhood centers across the city to foster informal social control.

Chicago Area Project

The Chicago Area Project operated for $25$ years until Shaw's death in __________.

$$1957$$

Sampson describes __________ as the ability of communities to organize collectively for positive purposes and realized common goals.

social capital

__________ refers to the social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good.

collective efficacy

Sampson argues that crackdowns on panhandlers and loiterers are unsophisticated solutions that overlook the broader conditions where patterns of __________ persist.

durable inequality

Travis Bickle is a $26$-year-old __________ and former U.S. Marine who drives a taxi in New York City.

Vietnam veteran

Travis takes the job of taxi driver primarily because he suffers from __________.

insomnia

Travis's main form of communication, which provides the film's voice-over narration, is his __________.

journal

Early in the film, Travis expresses his hatred for the city by stating, "Someday a real __________ will come and wash all this scum off the streets."

rain

Travis's urban experience is shaped by value conflicts and the absence of stabilizing social institutions described by __________ theorists.

Chicago school

Travis becomes attracted to a political campaign worker named __________, whom he describes as an "angel."

Betsy

Betsy tells Travis that he reminds her of a song lyric describing a man who is a "prophet and a pusher" and a "__________."

walking contradiction

Travis's date with Betsy fails when he takes her to see a movie at a __________.

porn theater

The presidential candidate traveling in Travis's cab who asks about the country's biggest problem is __________.

Charles Palantine

A $12$-year-old runaway named __________ appears in Travis's cab while trying to escape her pimp.

Iris

The pimp who forces Iris out of the taxi and is later killed by Travis is named __________.

Sport

A disgruntled passenger, played by Martin Scorsese in a cameo, describes a plan to kill his wife with a __________.

$$.44~Magnum$$

Travis tells his fellow cabbie, the __________, that he has "some bad ideas" in his head.

Wizard

While practicing with his firearms in front of a mirror, Travis repeatedly asks his reflection, "__________?"

You talkin' to me

In a routine visit to a __________, Travis kills a young black male who is attempting a robbery.

convenience store

Despite his mental breakdown and the violent bloodbath he causes, the film's conclusion shows Travis being hailed as a __________.

hero

The film depicts New York City as an __________, which the Chicago school defines as a place of corruption, value conflict, and isolation.

interstitial zone

According to Burgess, Travis is struggling to find "a place and role in the total __________ of city life."

organization

Chicago school theorists viewed __________ as a normal component of transitional urban environments grounded in social conditions.

criminality

The film uses __________—such as images viewed through windshields and rearview mirrors—to emphasize the distortion in Travis's perceptions.

optical motifs

In the 1976 film Taxi Driver, director __________ uses elements of social disorganization in city life to accentuate Travis's alienation.

Martin Scorsese

Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro, stands out in the red-light district of New York City as __________ lonely man.

God's

Signs of one-way streets, tow zones, and porn theaters in Taxi Driver capture the chronic __________ that characterizes Travis's existence.

normlessness

Travis explores the city with __________ detail, mimicking the methods of social disorganization theory by taking notes in his journal.

ethnographic

Robert E. Park recommended that researchers get their __________ to properly observe human nature, a method Travis follows by immersing himself in troubled zones.

pants dirty

The character __________, a child prostitute played by Jodie Foster, echoes Chicago school themes of delinquency as a product of broken conventional norms.

Iris

Chicago school theorists argue that opportunities for delinquency begin early and become more __________ and durable as individuals age.

persistent

Travis acts like the __________ reformers of late nineteenth-century Chicago by seeking to return Iris to her parents.

child-saving

Travis Bickle's social perspective is shaped by his history as a __________ veteran returning to radical changes in the U.S.

Vietnam War

The slogan __________ for the Palantine campaign further exacerbates the emptiness of Travis's existence.

We the People

John Singleton's 1991 film __________ was the first to examine how black youths are defined by drugs, gangs, and violence in South Central Los Angeles.

Boyz n the Hood

The hero of Boyz n the Hood is seventeen-year-old __________, whose parents try to insulate him from gang life.

Tre Styles

Films such as New Jack City (1991), Menace II Society (1993), and __________ (1995) chronicle the criminogenic crisis caused by the war on drugs.

Clockers

In Neil Jordan's 2007 film The Brave One, Jodie Foster plays successful radio show host __________.

Erica Bain

The film Death Wish (1974) starred __________ as a New Yorker who engages in vigilante killings.

Charles Bronson

In The Brave One, Erica is brutally beaten and her fiancé is murdered at __________, an entrance to Central Park.

Stranger's Gate

Erica Bain's vigilante acts are eventually covered up and reconstructed by the police as __________ in the film's conclusion.

self-defense

Chicago school theorists were primarily concerned with the ability of communities and individuals to sustain themselves in contexts defined by __________.

disorganization

The work of Chicago school theorists opened up possibilities for criminologists to consider alternatives to __________ social control.

formal

Chicago school research focuses on assisting troubled neighborhoods in developing the capacity for __________ and the achievement of community goals.

collective action

A central question in the Chicago school's work concerns what happens in settings where the idea of a __________ or common good has been lost.

public

Social disorganization scholars assume that central to the process of reform is improvement in the __________ that drive action, process, and change.

social conditions

When resources are absent in contexts of __________ and persistent inequality, actors may look to crime to organize their lives.

durable poverty

Theories linking crime to urban disorganization developed against the backdrop of the isolation and alienation of __________ who participated in the birth of the American city.

migrants and immigrants

"__________" films are a genre of popular culture that specifically concentrate on social disorganization itself.

Hood

The films Taxi Driver and The Brave One focus on the dynamics of exclusion and the failure of __________ to address social suffering.

social institutions

In movies like Taxi Driver and The Brave One, Hollywood depicts troubled, powerless actors attempting to salvage their lives through __________.

violence