Ecology lec Theory and Deviance

Ecology Theory and Deviance

Introduction

  • The lecture aims to explore ecology theory and potentially learning theory, emphasizing the impact of social space on behavior.
  • Norms are not absolute and vary based on the occasion, situation, or place.

Video: Punk Rock Concert Confrontation

  • A video depicts a person wearing Nazi symbols at a punk rock concert being confronted and physically assaulted.
  • The punk and metal scenes generally reject homophobia and outward expressions of hate.
  • Opinions on the reaction to the person wearing Nazi symbols:
    • Some believe violence is wrong.
    • Others feel compelled to act, possibly through yelling or pushing.
  • Comments range from condemning the behavior to advocating similar treatment for Nazi sympathizers.
  • Some find the crowd's reaction measured, while others believe the person was seeking to incite a reaction.
  • Some argue that such clothing should be illegal, viewing it as an expression of hatred and bigotry.
  • The speaker suggests that some people may need to learn the hard way, implying that actions have consequences.

KISS Controversy

  • The lecturer brings up KISS's logo and how some people have used it as a Nazi symbol.
  • KISS, a group with two Jewish lead artists, used the two s's to spell kiss to retake over those symbols to eliminate them from hate.

Concerns About Purging Information

  • The Trump administration removed access to crucial medical data, affecting global scientific efforts.
  • Historical records of African Americans' contributions to the military are being erased.
  • Universities like Harvard and Columbia are facing threats to their accreditation.
  • There's a concern that the standards are going down for universities and colleges.

Scam Colleges

  • Scam colleges in Ontario primarily target immigrants, particularly from India, teaching irrelevant subjects and exploiting them financially.
  • Provincial governments lean on international students to generate revenue for education, sometimes leading to exploitation.
  • This situation results in Canadians blaming immigrants for education problems, while the government's rules are the real issue.

Social Space and Behavior

  • The lecture focuses on how social space, rather than individual humans, influences crime and deviance.
  • Reference to Milgram and Zimbardo experiments, highlighting the power of situations in influencing extreme behavior.

Crime News Cycle

  • The news cycle often presents crime in bunches rather than as a constant phenomenon.
  • Examples include a Greek counselor involved in crime, a fatal hit and run, and a man killing his wife and another woman.
  • The lecture uses the Dustin Paxton case, where a man was horribly disfigured, as an example.

Learning Objectives

  • Outline the origins of the ecological approach.
  • Define nativism.
  • Draw, label, and explain the concentric zones model of prime and deviance.
  • Outline Stark's hypothesis regarding urbanization and deviance.
  • Identify the major problems of the ecological approach.

Origins of the Ecological Approach

  • The Chicago School of Sociology in the 1920s aimed to understand the natural laws of social existence.
  • They were influenced by Durkheim's concept of social facts.
  • The school was interested in how communities and neighborhoods deteriorate.
  • Researchers noticed rings of development around cities and their correlation with crime zones.
  • Crime was more prevalent just outside the downtown core.
  • The goal was to fix this particular section to reduce overall crime and victimization.

Innovative Research Methods

  • Chicago School emphasized innovation in understanding urbanization processes.
  • Robert Park advocated for sociologists to personally participate in the world they analyze.
  • He argued that without such participation, knowledge remains an uncertain commentary on experience.
  • Professor Harry Miller's urban sociology course involved students experiencing homelessness for 24 hours.
  • Students gained insights into the challenges of homelessness, such as lack of public spaces and societal avoidance.
  • The exercise aimed to provide a glimpse into the world being investigated.

Individualistic Explanations of Crime

  • Classical school all the blame in on the individuals.
  • They're influenced by Durkheim.

Historical Context

  • The Chicago School was influenced by several factors:
    • Rapid population growth in Chicago, from 67,000 to over a million.
    • Grotesque industrialization with pollution and environmental damage.
    • World War I, the stock market crash of 1929, and massive urbanization in America and Canada.

Nativism

  • Nativism involves hostility towards rapid social change and a desire to return to a perceived better time.
  • It is a collective action aimed at preserving a specific culture, often used to legitimize actions.

The Polish Peasant in America

  • W. I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki published "The Polish Peasant in America" in 1927.
  • They argued that disruptive forces are associated with immigration, not specific immigrant groups.
  • Thomas discovered detailed thoughts and experiences of Polish immigrants through a discarded journal.
  • Personal journals and diaries are valuable research methods for understanding people's experiences.

Shafia Murders

  • The Shafia murders in Toronto serve as an example of cultural conflict and its extreme consequences.
  • The case raised concerns about the extent of similar issues in Canada's immigrant communities.

Analysis of Personal Journals

  • The authors analyzed personal journals to understand the difficulties immigrants faced in Chicago.
  • They argued that social controls were difficult to exert over family members.
  • The absence of a normative order created a mentality of "anything goes."

Culture Conflict and Crime

  • Thorsten Sellin's essay, "Culture Conflict and Crime" (1938), discusses difficulties experienced by immigrants integrating into society.
  • A story is mentioned about a Sicilian father who murdered the seducer of his 16-year-old daughter, highlighting conflicting cultural values.

Difficulties in Adapting

  • The lecturer finds it challenging to identify contemporary examples of immigrants failing to adapt to Canadian values and being involved in crime.
  • The Shafia murders are considered an extreme and unusual case.

Concentric Zone Model

  • Burgess's concentric zone model illustrates city development in progressive rings.
  • The downtown core had varying degrees of crime happening there.
  • The transition zone had deteriorated housing and abandoned buildings.
  • The lecturer poses that it wasn't the immigrants causing the crime.

Key Findings

  • Sean McKay concluded that social problems were spatially produced.
  • Mapping effectively demonstrates this phenomenon.
  • However, cities like Seattle, Toronto, and New York do not fit the model perfectly.

Seattle and Crime

  • Seattle's transition zone in the 1930s was dominated by Italian Americans.
  • Today, the transition zone still has high crime rates, but very few Italians reside there.
  • Rodney talks about his past.

Real Estate Map of Calgary

  • A real estate map of Calgary illustrates the city's quadrants.
  • A rudimentary study using Calgary Police Services mapping services shows varying crime statistics in different neighborhoods.
  • The Beltline neighborhood has the highest rate of crime in Calgary, often associated with assaults near bars.
  • Suburban communities had fewer totals of crime.

Holes in the Model

  • The lecturer believes the model focused on transitioned zones, and corporate crime.
  • If suburban data would be studied, police would take action because of the visibility.
  • The crime is more easily concealed in suburbia.
  • Why crime and memory don't fit perfectly in to the Chicago and Toronto model?
    • Crime and deviants are more conspicuous and therefore more obvious in transition zones.
    • There's more people there.
  • In the winter parking lots and co ops had planned attacks just to steal garbage carts. They would proceed in lining the carts with their old clothing to give themselves makeshift home.

Rodney Stark's Hypothesis

  • Rodney Stark emphasized the city as the cause of crime.
  • The transition zone is characterized by high density, poverty, and transience.
  • Moral cynicism is more prevalent in this and increases opportunities for crime.

Propositions

  • The hypothesis is based on propositions that the students can create qualitative studies using ecological. This can be done through the study of criminology.
  • Greater density of population, means an easy Association with deviance.
  • High Levels of cynicism with population in the area.
  • Lack of supervision with children leading to crime.
  • Mixed use makes more transients which makes levels of community surveillance go down.
  • Moron stigmatized neighborhoods is a social stigma because other roles leave quickly.
  • Stigmatized neighborhoods see more lenient law enforcement creating opportunities that can be exploitable through crimes with high visibility.

Chicago Area Project

  • The Chicago Area Project utilized various strategies to reorganize communities and reduce crime.
  • Block watch programs were implemented.
  • The Guardian Angels patrolled cities to scare off and ward off criminals because of high visibility.
  • Built architectural designs, such as seven eleven, to reduce criminal intentions.
  • Academics used studies to get rid of teenage loiters.

Cobrin's Conclusion

  • Cobrin concluded that it the Chicago Area Program model has not been rigorously studied, but is in effect. The overall comparison is between Chicago, and Pittsburgh where Chicago grew, but much slower than the other cities where no action had been taken in those other cities.
  • Social space variables are interesting due to studies regarding gender differences.
  • Small towns think about dating inferior vs if it's more diverse.

Problems with Isomorphism

  • Variables, specifically dependant variables, must cause disorganization.
  • Poverty can cause more crime which may cause this model to fail.
  • What is the cause between white and white?

Conclusion

  • Examine crime to see if the police are doing their job.