1.2 the rookery and the zone in transition Flashcards
criminological thought is an artefact of what?
social and political contexts
rookery was a term coined by?
social reformers in 19th century
- henry mayhew
what was the rookery used by mayhew to describe?
- the moral turpitude and associated criminality observed in the slum neighbourhoods of victorian cities e.g. st giles in london
mayhews work of the rookery is what kind of research?
-ethnographic
- fieldwork observations of life in slum neighbourhoods rapidly expanding during 1st industrial revolution
- through inward migration due to attraction of employment opportunities in factories
what 2 main cities did frederick engels focus on?
why?
- london, manchester
- both crucible of social and economic intervention and progress during 1st industrial revolution
- also site of great immiseration and social conflict
what was mayhews type of interpretation of crime and the city?
- conservative
- moral authoritarian
what was engels focus on crime and insecurity?
- socialist focus on inequality and conflict as root causes of crime and insecurity
what is the zone in transition
conceptualises the social disorganisation of inner-city neighbourhoods characterised by rapid turnover in residential populations of these neighbourhoods
the zone in transition was used by who?
why?
key figures in chicago school e.g. ernest burgess
- conceptualises the social disorganisation of inner-city neighbourhoods characterised by rapid turnover in residential populations of these neighbourhoods
populations expanded how many times in 3 decades in chicago?
- 5 and half times
- 299,000 in 1870 to 1.7 million
migrations in chicago produced what type of residential populations?
- heterogeneous
what were burgess concentric zones conceptualisation of chicago used for?
what do his concentric zones mean?
- attempt to understand the impact of these huge migrations on the growth and organisation of the city
- migrants initially settled in cheap inner city housing near factories
- then moved outwards to more affluent suburbs as became upwardly mobile
how did clifford shaw and henry mcckay relate these migrant concentric zones to the problem of juvenile delinquency
- argues effective social control of young people eroded by disorganization of inner city neighbourhoods
- leading to elevated levels in volume personal and property crime
when was london labour and the london poor by mayhew
1851-1862
what were slum dwellers portraryed as by mayhew?
- different kinds of dangerous people
- authors of their own actions
- choosing to reject civil society and disciplined life of respectable working class and prey upon it
how were slums portraryed as dominated by?
- dominated by nomads or rootless people with little investment in welfare of places they inhabited
- committed instead to immediate self-gratification through drugs and vice
what did these dangerous places and people in the slums pose a threat to?
what is providence
idea of metropolis as what engine
- providence = the idea of self-discipline in pursuit of future self-improvement
- idea of metropolis as engine of modernity and progress in human affairs
what did jones call the idea of metropolis as an engine of modernity and progress (quote)
‘the citadel of moral virtue and economic rationality’
revisionist historians such as geoffrey pearson regarded mayhews perception of poor as dangerous and as what construct?
construct of social reformers who draw upon anthropological imagination of british empire to make sense of alien characteristics of slums
- relates this to the same as other alien cultures and places abroad subject to colonisation and civilising mission
when was the eugencis movement and why
-1880s
- notion that peoples mental and physical prowess (degeneracy) were shaped by their unregulated sexualities/ breeding
- need to curtail the threat that unfit and degenrate populations pose to superior races
- concern with purity of the race
- epitomised in racial ideology of british imperialism e.g. civilised white upper middle classes and aspirant working class of metropolis
eugneics portrayed the poor as?
-different, degenerate, kinds of people fed off the spatial and social segregation
who was competing for scarce housing and resources in late victorian period in east end london
from abroad the foreign element competed with settled indigenous labouring poor
what was described as the collapse of community cohesion
relationship of immigration to crime and insecurity and struggle for resources
example of a signal moment of collapse of community cohesion
the matchgirl strike of 1888
what amplified fears of the respectable classes in late victorian london?
riots
the revolutionary potential of the casually employed and poor
what did unregulated sexuality pose a threat to?
-threat to the concept of the city as an engine of moral virture and economic progress
what did the eugenics movement take particualr interest in and why
- regulation of sexuality
- believed was central to reproduction of fit and healthy population and protection from degeneracy and fear about racial decline
what was the eugenics narratives about sexuality starting to distinguish between
-normal and abnormal sexulities
- regarding homosexuality as a threat e.g. oscar wilde epitomised this
why was prostituion perceived as a threat to eugenics
- threat to relationship between sex and reproduction through its promotion of recreational sex aimed at immediate self-gratification
what exemplified the dissolute and degenerate qualities of the urban poor
volume and visibility of prostitution in slum areas
-‘the great social evil of slums’