Chicago School

Question 1

When was the Chicago school sociology department developed?

Answer 1

It was the first sociology department in the world and was established in 1892.

Question 2

What did the Chicago school focus on?

Answer 2

The school first focused on the changes and problems within society, this was influenced by the time, racial problems and heaps of slums. Focusing on urbanisation, race relations, and crime

Question 3

True or False?

During Chicago’s development of sociology there was a massive increase in population

Answer 3

True! The population grew by 3.6 million in only 100 years

Question 4

What were some reasons for rises in crime?

Answer 4

Rising tensions in slums

Previously legal activities were now banned

Organised crime

Question 5

Why were there heaps of slums and crime within Chicago?

Answer 5

Due to a drastic increase in the population, and many other races all coming into one place raising tensions and xenophobia was prevalent at the time

Question 6

What is social disorganisation theory?

Answer 6

It is the theory that crime will be prevalent in areas which have little social organisation

Question 7

What are some causes of social disorganisation?

Answer 7

Mass population increase, poverty, urbanisation, and many different races coming together.

Question 8

True or False?
Within an area recovering from social disorganisation once the social structure is fixed crime will not be prevalent in that area

Answer 8

False, it is said that a recovering area will suffer from high crime rates for up to 20 years after a new structure is set.

Question 9

What is the routine activities theory?

Answer 9

Stating that crime has elements of crime which make it prevalent

Offender - rational choice

Suitable target - visible and accessible

Absence of guardian

without one of these there is unlikely to be crime

Question 10

What did the Neo-Chicago idea focus on?

Answer 10

Focused on interactionism and labelling theory’s, how the individual interrelates within society.

Question 11

What is interactionism?

Answer 11

How an individual is an actor within society, and society is constraining on individuals. And there are people in power and those in submissive states.

Question 12

What is labelling theory?

Answer 12

The idea that people who are labelled will act in that way. Stigma will lead people into acting within the group they are so labelled.

Question 13

What was an important addition Howard S. Becker added to labelling theory?

Answer 13

Introduced normative relativism, and explained how the law is decided by those in power and laws and morals are different in different places and between people.

Question 14

How do the routine activities theory and social disorganisation theory interrelate?

Answer 14

A break down in societal structure means more opportunities for people to commit crime, more accessible targets and less guardians present to stop crime. The rational choice of the offender is much greater due to a broken societal structure.

Question 15

What does the routine activities theory focus on?

Answer 15

How the individual reacts and commits crime within a society which is struggling.

Question 16

True or False?

Social disorganisation theory is a focus on the individual not society as a whole

Answer 16

False, this theory focuses on the structure of the society and how it leads to and allows crime.

Question 17

When did the shift from biological posivitism take place?

Answer 17

After WWI

Question 18

Why did social problems become a concern for the sociologists at Chicago?

Answer 18

Social conditions were changing

End of slavery 1864

Immigration from Europe

Mass increase in population

Question 19

True or False?

Chicago developed the first book on sociology

Answer 19

True! This helped to develop the new type of sociology the Chicago school focused on.

Question 20

What was the importance of the great Chicago fire within sociology?

Answer 20

The fire lead to 1 in 3 people within Chicago being left homeless, thus poverty was rife and slums became popular, leaning into social disorganisation.

Question 21

What is an assumption learning and cultural transmission theories make?

Answer 21

It assumes that crime is a result of social interaction, behaviour reflects what is learned through observation.

Question 22

What is the focus for cultural transmission theories?

Answer 22

Group values and societal morals. And people who commit crime have different morals and understandings from those who do not commit crime.

Question 23

What is the importance of the first skyscraper in Chicago?

Answer 23

It allowed the higher population density and marked a shift toward modernisation

Question 24

How did the end of slavery effect Chicago?

Answer 24

It increased the racial population and ex-slaves were poor meaning more slum population

Question 25

What is social ecology?

Answer 25

The study of how individuals interact with and respond to the environment around them

Question 26

What was a main societal concern in the 1920s?

Answer 26

The prejudice of immigrants

Question 27

What is social learning theory (Aker)

Answer 27

The idea that the socioeconomic structure people find themselves in influences criminality