Chapter 5

Question 1

What is the Social disorganization theory?

Answer 1

It is a theory about neighbourhoods that lack the ability to control delinquent youth and other potentially problematic populations.

It’s a macro-level theory that focuses on larger units of analysis.

Question 2

Immigration: crime and deviance

Answer 2

• Immigrants who brought their old traditions and who had not been appropriately socialized into the new world were seen as the causes of the social problems of the day.

Question 3

Perspective of the Chicago School:

Answer 3

• Social Disorganization Theory: Crime is not caused by “bad people” but by unstable social environments.
• Human Ecology & Urban Sociology: Cities function like ecosystems where people adapt, compete, and interact within their social and physical environments.

Question 4

The origin of social disorganization theory is attributed to who?

Answer 4

Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay’s Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas.

Question 5

Shaw and McKay created maps that clearly demonstrated 3 things: what were they?

Answer 5

1. Delinquency did not appear to be distributed randomly across the neighbourhoods of Chicago;
2. Rates of delinquency appeared to cluster in certain neighbourhoods and appeared highest close to the central business district;
3. Delinquency tented to decline as one moved away from the central business district.

Question 6

What is the central business district?

Answer 6

It is the commercial area of a city where most of the business activity occurs.

Question 7

What are concentric zones?

Answer 7

“It is a model of urban cities, generally consisting of the central business district, the zone in transition, zone of the working class, residential zone, and commuter zone.”

Question 8

What is a Zone in Transition?

Answer 8

1. it is an area of a city that usually borders the central business district.
2. The name comes from the notion that the poorest groups are forced to live there, and as they secure financial stability, they moved out, so it is an area in transition between different populations.

Question 9

What is the working class zone?

Answer 9

More stable housing, occupied by blue-collar workers who moved out of the slums.
Less pollution, but still close to jobs in the city.

Question 10

What are residential zone?

Answer 10

Single-family homes, parks, schools, and better living conditions.
Lived in by middle-income families who commute to work in the city.

Question 11

What is a commuter zone?

Answer 11

Wealthy people live here, far from city noise and pollution.
Large homes, longer commutes, and a focus on privacy & nature.

Question 12

Factors Characterizing Neighbourhoods: Shaw and McKay highlighted 3 factors that characterized neighbourhoods with high rates of delinquency:

Answer 12

1. Poverty
2. Population turnover
3. Racial/ethnic heterogeneity

Question 13

What is poverty?

Answer 13

It is a lack of resources or financial well-being.

Question 14

What is population turnover?

Answer 14

“It is also referred to as residential instability and often measured as the the % of the population that did not reside in the neighbourhood 5 years earlier.”

Question 15

What is Racial/ethnic heterogeneity?

Answer 15

It refers to a mixture of different races and ethnicities in a given area.

Question 16

Critiques of Social Disorganization Theory #1:

Answer 16

1. Field of criminology shifted and became more focused on individuals as opposed to groups. Macro-level theories like social disorganization focus on groups and places, rarely addressing individual behaviour.

Question 17

Critiques of Social Disorganization Theory #2:

Answer 17

2. Longitudinal data are expensive and sometimes impossible to collect, and later studies typically were restricted to cross-sectional designs.

***Longitudinal data comes from a series of observations of the same phenomena over time.

Question 18

Critiques of Social Disorganization Theory #3:

Answer 18

There seemed to be some confusion in distinguishing social disorganization from delinquency itself. This resulted in criticisms that the theory was tautological.

Question 19

Types of Theories of Juvenile Delinquency–>Ruth Kornhauser divided the classic theories of juvenile delinquency into 3 basic types:

Answer 19

1. Cultural deviance
2. Strain
3. Social Disorganization (She views social dis. as a macro-level control theory, where some neighbourhoods can control deviance, while others, marked by poverty and instability, cannot).

Question 20

Efficacy in social disorganization theory: Individual efficacy

Answer 20

1. Individual Efficacy–> An individual’s ability to accomplish a task.

Question 21

Efficacy in social disorganization theory: Collective efficacy

Answer 21

2. Collective efficacy–>
   - neighbourhood’s ability to recognize common goals of a safe environment that is largely free from crime and deviance.

• They defined collective efficacy as “social cohesion among neighbours combined with their willingness to intervene on the behalf of the common good.”
• Social cohesion and trust among neighbours are essential for residents to intervene for the common good.
• It is an important mediating effect between structural factors associated with social disorganization and deviant behaviour, particularly violent behaviour.

Question 22

The Concept of parental Efficacy:

Answer 22

Parental efficacy refers to parents’ belief in their ability to influence and manage their children’s behavior in a positive way, even in challenging environments. It’s about how confident parents feel in their skills to guide their children toward positive development, discipline, and decision-making.

Question 23

Social and Physical Disorder:

Answer 23

1. Physical Disorder: it is the condition of some neighbourhoods with high levels of litter, graffiti, vandalism, and broken windows.
2. Social Disorder: they are conditions of some neighbourhoods with high levels of unmonitored youth misbehaving, drug dealers, people openly and illegally using alcohol or other drugs, and fighting.

Question 24

Social disorganization and disorder theory:

Answer 24

• The key to social disorganization theory is the ability or residents to control delinquency and crime, things that most everyone would like to minimize.
• Physical and social disorder are presumably things that most people would like to avoid if they had the ability to control them or could afford to live in better neighbourhoods.

Question 25

Understanding variation in crime:

Answer 25

Social disorganization theory has been used to understand variation I crime, delinquency, and deviance across neighbourhoods within urban settings.

Question 26

Neighbourhood concentrated disadvantage:

Answer 26

Fagan and Wright (2012) studied how neighbourhood disadvantage and collective efficacy influenced delinquency and violent behaviour among male and female youth, ages 8–17, in 1990s Chicago. Surprisingly, general deviance and violence were largely unrelated to neighborhood characteristics among boys. Concentrated disadvantage was associated with higher levels of female misbehavior. Socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with lower levels of females self-reported violent behaviour.

Question 27

Analogy between weeds and deviance:

Answer 27

Sociologists often compare weeds to deviance to illustrate how society reacts to individuals who break norms. This analogy helps explain how deviant behavior is socially constructed, meaning that what is considered "bad" or "undesirable" depends on context.

Question 28

Two primary external mechanisms were instrumental in the development and sustained existence of social disorganized neighbourhoods, compulsory confinement, here referred to as: 1.Restricted access 2.Forced mobility

Answer 28

1. Restricted access to buy and renting in certain neighbourhoods results in compulsory confinement of certain groups in socially disorganized neighbourhood. 2. Forced mobility: refers to situations where people are compelled to move from one place to another due to external pressures rather than personal choice.

Question 29

What is Racial zoning ordinances?

Answer 29

Racial zoning ordinances have been long recognized as unconstitutional but there are other ways of socially and legally restricting unwanted groups, such as racial and ethnic minorities, from moving into certain neighbourhoods.

Question 30

Racial zoning ordinances led to...?

Answer 30

African American were confined to socially disorganized neighbourhoods with few resources, allowing crime and deviance to thrive.

Question 31

A standardized mechanism:

Answer 31

Further efforts that restricted minority access to certain neighborhoods was when the Federal Housing Authority introduced under the “New deal” that provided a “standardized mechanism” for deciding for whom it was safe to insure mortgages. This set the stage for preferential opportunities for whites migrating to the suburbs and the compulsory confinement of racial and ethnic minorities in the inner cities where it was financially unsafe to invest.

Question 32

Forced segregation:

Answer 32

The long-term consequences of white flight and the segregation of minorities with little or no room for social and economic mobility left many important cities impoverished. The Federal Housing Acts of 1949 and 1954 provided funds to cities to buy up impoverished areas and allow private companies to come in and improve conditions and ultimately restore inner city neighborhood. Many poor residents, mostly African American, were literally evicted from their homes and were uprooted to other poor, high crime, deviant neighborhoods.

Question 33

What is natural assimilation?

Answer 33

This occurs when immigrants gradually and voluntarily adopt the culture of their new country over time, without coercion or force.

Question 34

What is unnatural assimilation?

Answer 34

This occurs when immigrants are forced or pressured to abandon their original culture, language, and identity in order to fit into the dominant society.

Question 35

What is the Chicago Area Project?

Answer 35

The Chicago Area Project (CAP) was an initiative started in the 1930s by sociologist Clifford Shaw (a key figure in the Chicago School of Sociology). It aimed to reduce juvenile delinquency by improving social conditions in poor urban neighborhoods.

Question 36

How Did CAP Work?

Answer 36

Youth Programs – After-school activities, sports, and mentoring to keep kids engaged and away from crime. 🔹 Community Centers – Safe spaces for socializing, learning, and organizing. 🔹 Job Training & Education – Helping young people develop skills to get stable employment. 🔹 Local Leadership – Encouraging neighbourhood residents to lead initiatives instead of relying on outsiders.