Criminal and Delinquent Behavior Exam 3

Why did Social Disorganization theory emerge?

Early theories had been concerned with individual factors that led certain people to commit crimes. The blame was placed on individuals that committed crimes due to some kind of pathology. As well as the fact that major changes had been taking place like urbanization, population displacement, etc. which were understood as social phenomena and crime could be explained from such perspective

How did Social Disorganization Theory depart from biological and psychological explanations of crime , focusing instead on the social causes of crime?

View of crime as socially structured and patterned led the movement from personal to the social level. Social roots of crime were the key aspect to address when understanding crime issues, there was an emphasis on the social component of the crime phenomenon

What three elements converged in Chicago that allowed the emergency of social disorganization theory?

Social changes, The rise of the progressive movement, and The existence of a consolidated sociology program at the University of Chicago

What was the historical and intellectual context of the Chicago School?

Progressive era reforms, Rapid urbanization and industrialization, Immigration and population turnover

What is Progressive Era Reforms?

Progressives rejected harsh Social Darwinist ideas and believed the poor were not to blame on their condition but were rather pushed to miserable lives. This made scholars more willing to look for the social roots of crime and support reform rather than pure punishment

What is Rapid Urbanization and Industrialization?

Cities were growing fast, factories were expanding, housing was overcrowded, and urban poverty became more visible

What is Immigration and Population Turnover?

Chicago was receiving immigrants, displaced rural residents, and African Americans leaving the south. This created constant movement and neighborhood instability, and enforced the idea that living in the city influenced crime

What are the Different Zones that Burgess’ traced?

Zone I: The Business Center

Zone II: The “Zone in Transition”

Zone III: Residence of better off Industrial Workers

Zone IV: Higher Class Residential Area

Zone V: Suburban areas and Satellite Cities

How were Burgess’ different zones linked to city growth?

The idea was that city growth pushes outward from downtown. As business expands, the zone in transition gets disrupted: it has deteriorating housing, crowding, and frequent resident turnover

How did Shaw and McKay build from Burgess’ different zone idea?

Shaw and McKay took Burgess’s city model and asked whether delinquency followed the same spatial pattern. They believed general social processes create the conditions in which delinquency becomes more or less likely. They found that delinquency was highest in the zone in transition, rates generally declined with distance from downtown, and neighborhood delinquency patterns stayed remarkably stable over time

Why was crime reconceptualized as a neighborhood‑level phenomenon rather than an individual pathology?

Shaw and McKay kept finding the same spatial pattern, so crime came to be seen less as an individual pathology and more as a neighborhood-level process. Their conclusion was basically that delinquency reflected the nature of the neighborhood, not the biological or moral nature of the individuals living there

What is the work of Shaw and McKay and their core findings?

There was stability in delinquency rates in specific neighborhoods over time, and Crime patterns persisted despite changes in ethnic composition

What are the key structural conditions associated with social disorganization?

Concentrated disadvantage, Residential instability, and Ethnic heterogeneity

What are the two key mechanisms of social disorganization?

Breakdown of informal social control, Cultural transmission across generations

Further explain Breakdown of Informal Social Control:

In disorganized neighborhoods, adults are less able to supervise youth, enforce norms, or step in when trouble starts. Families and institutions are strained, so everyday control weakens

Further explain Cultural transmission across generations?

Disorganized neighborhoods can sustain criminal traditions. Youth learned delinquent values from older peers, siblings, and gangs, and those values could be passed down across generations

What are the early criticisms of social disorganization theory?

-Focused on transmission but not value change

-Taking special patterning for granted and not making it a focus of the theory

-Structural constraints present but deemphasized for policy, most solutions focused on how to help communities might lead to too voluntaristic solutions and “blaming” them for their problems

-Focused on crimes associated with poor areas, unable (or unwilling) to explain other types of crime

-Limited attention to agency and variation in social processes

What are the policy implications of social disorganization theory?

Community‑based interventions rather than punitive responses. The idea is to strengthen neighborhoods by improving institutions, increasing supervision, creating local network, and offering youth supports

How has social disorganization theory been reformulated in multiple ways?

It was first reformulated into then the Systemic Model of social disorganization, presented as a pure social control model. Then into Collective Efficacy which focused on not just ties, but on whether neighbors are actually willing to step in and act together

How does Sampson reformulate social disorganization theory?

His reformulation centers on collective efficacy, this is the idea that what really matters is whether neighbors trust one another and are willing to act together to maintain order

True or False: Neighborhoods vary in their ability to activate informal social control

True

What is Social Control?

Not just a response to deviant behavior, but the capability of a group to regulate its members according to collective goals

What was the central goal of Social Control?

To live in a safe environment free of crime and interpersonal violence

What does Effective Social Control involve?

Proactive actions of neighbors and their capability to perform collective tasks such as supervising children and maintaining public order

True or False: The degree of informal social control exercised by residents will affect the extent of a community’s crime problem

True

True or False: By exerting social informal controls, neighbors activate human agency and become able to intervene towards a common good

True

What did the Systemic Model of Social Disorganization (collective efficacy’s predecessor) have an emphasis on?

Local social networks (family, friends, neighbors), Parochial institutions (schools, churches, community organization), Teen Peer Supervision

What was Sampson’s presentation of inconclusive findings on the relationship between ties and crime?

Sampson notes that findings on the relationship between social ties and crime were often inconclusive. Just knowing that a neighborhood has many ties does not always tell you whether crime will be low. Some places may have strong networks but still struggle with violence

What was Sampsons criticism to the Systemic Model of Social Disorganization?

His main criticism is that the systemic model put too much weight on ties themselves, and Sampson argues that ties are not enough. So, his reformulation shifts attention from having ties to activating social control

Define Collective Efficacy:

Collective capacity of a community to activate social networks and mobilize resources in order to achieve its shared communal goals

What two different, but interconnected mechanisms does collective efficacy involve:

Social Cohesion (“Collective”) and Shared Expectations for Control (“Efficacy”)

Why is collective efficacy task‑specific and action-oriented, not a personality trait or stable cultural value:

Collective efficacy is not a personality trait and not just a general cultural value. It is about whether residents will actually act in specific situations. In the original study, this meant asking whether neighbors would intervene if kids skipped school, sprayed graffiti, disrespected an adult, or if a fight broke out nearby

What is the Basic model of Collective Efficacy?

-Structural characteristics: Concentrated disadvantage, Immigrant concentration, Residential stability

-Neighborhood processes: Informal social control, Social cohesion and trust

-Crime and social problems: Perceived violence, Victimization in the neighborhood (members of household, Homicide incidents

Distinguish collective efficacy from strong social ties:

Strong ties means people know one another well. Collective efficacy means they are willing to use trust and cooperation in order to solve problems. A neighborhood does not need to be extremely close-knit to have collective efficacy

What is the reach of Collective Efficacy, what does it explain and where?

It does not necessarily explain individual level behavior—no conclusive link to self-reported violence and may affect neighborhood dynamics and peer socialization, It may explain a wide range of neighborhood problems besides crime—health rates, deaths, social problems, It seems to explain crime across different societies—specific study comparing Stockholm and Chicago shows support in both cases, studies in other cities in the US and abroad seem to also support the theory, less conclusive findings in Latin America

What is the main contribution made by Collective Efficacy?

It explains why neighborhoods with high collective efficacy usually have lower violence. This is because neighbors are more likely to supervise youth, step in during conflicts, maintain public order, and work together

How stable is Collective Efficacy?

More durable than expected, Contributes to social reproduction of problems, Collective efficacy remains even when areas and people change, Stability is a feature across areas with different racial and ethnic compositions, Structural deprivation and limited collective efficacy mutually reinforce and create a cycle of stability, Reciprocal feedback loop with crime

What is the Systemic Model?

Social control theory that says structural disadvantage weakens local networks like family ties, friendships, community organizations, and supervision of teens. Crime rises because neighborhoods lose the ability to regulate behavior

Further analyze the Collective Efficacy Model:

Social control theory that argues what matters is not just having ties. What matters is whether neighbors share trust and are actually willing to intervene for the common good

What is Cultural Attenuation Theory?

A cultural theory that says conventional norms weaken or fall into disuse, which reduces informal control. Key insight is that neighbors do not endorse violence!

What is Legal Cynicism?

A specific from of cultural attenuation. It reflects distrust of law and legal authorities as illegitimate, unresponsive, or unable to protect residents.  It reduces willingness to call police, cooperate with authorities, and intervene in public disputes

What is Cultural deviance/Criminal traditions?

This view says some neighborhood contexts transmit values or definitions favorable to crime. These values are learned through interaction and sustained through peer groups, gangs, and neighborhood traditions. In certain contexts criminal behavior can be legitimized, normalized, and expected

What is Code of the Street?

Anderson’s theory explains violence as a situational strategy for gaining respect and avoiding victimization in disadvantaged neighborhoods marked by weak institutions and distrust of police. It is not simply a shared moral endorsement of violence by everyone

What are “Street” families?

Families that fully endorse this code

What are “Decent” families?

Families that display the code without internalizing it and are able to code switch. They hold more conventional values

How do modern neighborhood theories share an emphasis on structural disadvantage but differ in the social processes that mediate the structure–crime relationship?

-Structural conditions: Poverty, Heterogeneity, Cumulative disadvantage, Mobility, Weak institutions, etc.

-Social mechanisms: The area in which theories separate (what the theories entail)

-Crime outcomes

Distinguish cultural attenuation theory from cultural deviance theory:

Cultural attenuation emphasizes the weakening of conventional norms, not endorsement of crime

What should you understand legal cynicism as?

A cultural frame reflecting distrust in legal institutions, Not an endorsement of violence, A specific formulation of cultural attenuation theory

What should you understand cultural tradition theories as?

They posit that cultural values favoring crime exist, Most theories focus on value conflict and cultural transmission within a neighborhood and do not assert that they are the predominant orientation within a neighborhood, Discussions about cultural values are sometimes seen as problematic because talking about criminal values in poor neighborhoods can sound like blaming residents for structural problems

How does legal cynicism undermine informal social control and reduce willingness to intervene or call authorities?

Residents start to see the law and police as illegitimate, unresponsive, or unable to protect them. When people think authorities will not help, they become less likely to call police, or cooperate. This weakens the neighborhoods shared ability to keep order

What should you understand Anderson’s “code of the street” as?

Emerging from structural disadvantage and institutional distrust, A situational strategy rather than a shared moral code, Why can violence be instrumental, used to gain respect and avoid victimization

How do routine activity theory and rational choice theory differ from mainstream criminological theories?

They focus on crime events rather than criminal propensities, and there is an emphasis on opportunity rather than motivation—they understand crime as an individual choice triggered by situational factors

What do most criminological theories seek to explain?

Propensity or orientation to engage in crime, Crime is the relatively inevitable response of people inclined to criminality

Why did routine activity theory emerge?

Rising crime in the post-World War II U.S. despite increasing affluence, Crime became a feature of everyday social life and not necessarily a pathological response to deprivation, Attention to opportunity and proximate causes instead of on “criminality”, Pragmatic and seemingly neutral approach to crime provided an alternative to common crime debates

What are the three elements required for crime according to routine activity theory?

Motivated offenders, Suitable targets, Absence of capable guardians

What counts as capable guardianship?

-Informal social controls: family, friends, neighbors, and communities

-People, routines, and technologies: formal people, security personnel, locks, alarms, etc.

How do changes in routine activities help explain differences in crime across time and place (macro-level, neighborhood, place)?

At the macro level, shifts in work, leisure, travel, etc. can bring the three elements together more often. At the neighborhood and place levels, some areas or specific locations like bars, corners, stores, etc. create more opportunities because they concentrate attractive targets

How do changes in routine activities help explain different vulnerabilities to victimization?

People have different risks to victimization because their daily routine place them in different situations. Someone whose lifestyle brings them into unguarded places and around strangers will face greater victimization risk than someone whose routine involves more structure and protection

How do changes in routine activities help explain an individuals’ different exposure to opportunities?

The theory argues that people do not all face the same opportunities, their routines structure what situations, temptations, and risks they come across in everyday life

How is routine activity theory seen as compatible with rational choice theory?

-They both deemphasize motivation and focus more on the opportunity structure

-They both share the idea that crime provides immediate gratification and is relatively easy to commit

-They both believe that anything that makes crime harder makes it less likely to occur

-They both believe that other theories can still matter but are seen as background factors

-They share the belief that ideas about offending were further developed by environmental criminology

What are the policy implications of routine activity theory?

Reducing the opportunities for crime through Situational crime prevention, Target hardening, Place management, Policing, Environmental corrections, Crime displacement

What are the basic premises of Situational crime prevention?

Making crime less appealing which could be achieved by Increasing the effort, Increasing the risks, Reducing the rewards

What are the basic premises of Target hardening?

Makes targets harder to attack or steal, such as with locks, alarms, lighting, etc.

What are the basic premises of Place management?

Focuses on the fact that crime is concentrated not just in neighborhoods but in specific places like bars, buildings, stores, etc. In Eck’s crime triangle, different controllers can block each element of crime: a handler can influence the offender, a guardian can protect the target, and a manager can regulate the place

What are the basic premises of Policing?

Supports forms of problem-oriented policing that try to change environments and increase control rather than only reacting after crimes occur. This includes legal searches and seizures, meeting with apartment owners or community members, map routes that facilitate crime, etc. It is about redefining their work

What are the basic premises of Environmental corrections?

Crime events require individuals with motivation and opportunity to offend. It is an application of routine activity theory to probation and parole. Instead of only focusing on criminal propensity, they focus on managing exposure to criminogenic situations. Officers can act as handlers, identify risky situations through opportunity risk assessments, and develop plans to reduce contact with settings, people, or routines that create offending opportunitie

What are the basic premises of Crime displacement?

Crime can just simply move somewhere else. Sources note that displacement is possible, but usually limited because finding new opportunities for crime is costly, it is harder for individuals to switch to another crime type, and individuals need to initiate new routines and cognitive maps to structure a different set of opportunities to offend. Some studies even find diffusion of benefits

What is Diffusion of Benefits?

Where the extension of positive effects—like crime reduction—spreads beyond the targeted area

What distinguishes perceptual deterrence from classical deterrence theory?

Perceptual deterrence says that what matters is not the objective punishment itself, but the offenders perception of the costs and likelihood of punishment. It especially emphasizes perceived certainty rather than just severity. It also tends to find that deterrent effects are modest and context dependent

How has traditional rational choice theory evolved to consider bounded rationality and adopting more complex view of decision-making?

• Treats offenders as decision‑makers and centers the decision-making and reactions to changes in the immediate situation as key

• Adopts a view of bounded rationality when understanding decision-making

• Incorporates background factors (e.g., self‑control, strain) without reducing behavior to them

• Understanding of crime as a choice, even if made based on imperfect information

• New focus on understanding choice elements, information processing and gathering, and perceptions

• Understand policy implications

What are general issues in rational choice theory (justification of punishment, overemphasis on agency, etc.)?

Critics worry it can justify punishment too easily by making offenders seem fully free and fully rational when that often is not true

What is rational choice theory’s relationship with behavioral economics and how has this perspective helped add nuance to decision-making?

Behavioral economics has added nuance by showing that people do not make perfectly informed choices. They use shortcuts, are influenced by uncertainty, and often rely on biased heuristics instead of calm calculation

What is rational choice theory’s relationship with emotions and how are they included in the decision-making?

Emotions are not treated as part of decision-making rather than outside it. This makes offending decisions more complex. Emotional states can impact the context of crime, and Emotional reactions can trigger actions before judgmental decisions about choice

Which emotions can be seen as costs?

Negative emotions like shame and guilt

Which emotions can be seen as benefits?

Positive emotions such as thrills

How is perceptual deterrence rooted on rational choice theory and how does it advances this perspective?

Perceptual deterrence is rooted in rational choice because both assume that offending depends on how people evaluate costs and benefits. But perceptual deterrence advances the perspective by narrowing in on perceived certainty

What are the generalities of perceptual deterrence?

It says that the offending decision is made when benefits outweigh costs. It introduces the idea that what matter are the perception of costs and benefits instead of the actual costs and benefits. It identifies that lack of deterrence due to increased sanctions might be due to lack of changes in perceptions, as well as providing a clear route of empirical testing through surveys

What is perceptual deterrence’s empirical status?

It finds that certainty tends to be more important than severity. The strongest study designs tend to yield the weakest deterrent effects. It needs to incorporate a deeper understanding of how costs and benefits are formed and in which contexts they influence behavior

What are new directions in perceptual deterrence?

• Incorporating non-legal costs: State-imposed, Socially-Imposed, Self-Imposed

• Incorporate consideration of benefits: other positive returns besides monetary

• How certain traits (e.g., low self-control) influence perceptions

• How perceptions are formed and influence behavior: Experience of punishment, Learning mechanisms help inform perceptions, etc.

• Examine relationship between objective and perceived punishment: weaker relationship than assumed

What are the policy implications of perceptual deterrence?

Increasing certainty is usually more promising than increasing severity. However, the results are not overwhelmingly strong and focusing only on punishment remains limited because it ignores broader criminogenic conditions

What are key criticisms of opportunity‑based theories?

They often give limited attention to inequality and power, and there is a risk of focusing on symptom rather than structural causes