Which theory believes the root cause of crime can be traced directly to the socioeconomic disadvantages that have become embedded in American society?

In the 1942, two criminology researchers from the “Chicago School” of criminology, Clifford Shaw and Henry D. McKay developed social disorganization theory through their research.

The theory of social disorganization states a person’s physical and social environments are primarily responsible for the behavioral choices that a person makes. At the core of social disorganization theory, is that location matters when it comes to predicting illegal activity. Shaw and McKay noted that neighborhoods with the highest crime rates have at least three common problems, physical dilapidation, poverty, and higher level of ethnic and culture mixing. Shaw and McKay claimed that delinquency was not caused at the individual level, but is a normal response by normal individuals to abnormal conditions. Social disorganization theory is widely used as an important predictor of youth violence and crime.

Social Disorganization Theory and Delinquency

“Poverty is the mother of crime.”…Marcus Aurelius

Shaw and McKay discovered that there were four (4) specific assumption as an explanation of delinquency.

  1. The first assumption is the collapse of community based-based controls and people living in these disadvantaged neighborhoods are responding naturally to environmental conditions.
  2. The second is the rapid growth of immigration in urban disadvantage neighborhoods.
  3. The third is business located closely to the disadvantaged neighborhoods that are influenced by the “ecological approach” of competition and dominance.
  4. The fourth and last assumption is disadvantaged urban neighborhoods lead to the development of criminal values that replace normal society values.

Social disorganization theory suggest that a person’s residential location is more significant than the person’s characteristics when predicting criminal activity and the juveniles living in this areas acquire criminality by the cultures approval within the disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. Therefore, location matters when it comes to criminality according to social disorganization theory.

Social Disorganization Theory

The Future of the Theory

Social disorganization theory has received a lot of attention within criminology discipline since the theory was first introduced in 1942. Many studies in U.S. large cities have duplicated the findings of Shaw and McKay orginal study.

Social disorganization theory studies can help government and law enforcement policy-makers make informed decisions from the evidence to form strategies that help prevent criminal activity in disadvantaged communities to make it safer for all.

Abstract

Social structure theories suggest people's places in the socioeconomic structure influence their chances of becoming a criminal. Poor people are more likely to commit crimes because they are unable to achieve monetary or social success in any other way. Social structure theory has three schools of thought--social disorganization, strain, and cultural deviance theories. Social disorganization theory suggests that slum dwellers violate the law because they live in areas where social control has broken down. The origin of social disorganization theory can be traced to the work of Shaw and McKay, who concluded that disorganized areas marked by divergent values and transitional populations produce criminality. Strain theories view crime as resulting from the anger people experience over their inability to achieve legitimate social and economic success. These theories hold that most people share common values and beliefs but the ability to achieve them is differentiated throughout the social structure. The best known strain theory is Merton's, which describes what happens when people have inadequate means to satisfy their needs. Cultural deviance theories hold that a unique value system develops in lower class areas. Lower-class values approve of behaviors such as being tough, never showing fear, and defying authority. Cloward and Ohlin argue that crime results from lower-class people's perceptions that their opportunities for success are limited. 171 notes, 5 tables, 6 figures, and 7 photographs

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