The Chicago School

Question 1

When did the Chicago School’s influence emerged?

Answer 1

It emerged at the beginning of the 20th century elevating the city and urban life as an explanation of social disruption

Question 2

What was the key to understanding criminogenesis?

Answer 2

The social roots of crime

Question 3

What led to the genesis of the Chicago School theory?

Answer 3

Cities were expanded rapidly throughout the 19th century drawing in populations from rural regions and overseas with few familial ties and few economic resources, resulting in crowded conditions and “slum lords” made profits from their crowded conditions, people’s health, security & personal safety was in jeopardy.

Question 4

What did the Chicago School reject?

Answer 4

The poor were biologically inferior and, as such, “compelled” to criminal activity

Question 5

What was the appeal to educating those who lived in the slums?

Answer 5

Development of a middle class aspirationalism to lift
people out of poverty.

Question 6

What was subject to closer scrutiny thanks to the Chicago School theory?

Answer 6

Ghettos and Slums of urban centres

Question 7

Why are social services essential in the slums?

Answer 7

In order to alter the anti-social responses to these services in both the environment and to the individual

Question 8

How did the Chicago School theory alter the criminal justice system?

Answer 8

Avocation of a push to treat individual needs/problems through mechanisms such as juvenile justice and community supervised sentences as examples

Question 9

What was Robert E. Park’s theory?

Answer 9

The development of cities was ecological (not random) & patterned and could be determined in a progression from:
. Invasion, conflict, accommodation & assimilation.
. Secondly he theorised that these processes and
their impact (such as crime) could be understood
through the study of city life.

Question 10

What is the core understanding behind Shaw & McKay’s Theory of Juvenile Delinquency?

Answer 10

Neighborhood organisation was the instrumental pivot for the development or curtailing of delinquent careers

Question 11

What are the two major zones under analysis in Burgess’ Concentric Zone Theory?

Answer 11

Commercial zone (CBD) in the Loop for access to transportation for industry (factories); high priced residential was found in the outer zones away from noise, pollution and the slums/poor;

The transition zone was the most contentious because of competition between the expansion of factories and the residential needs of immigrants & workers (in tenements) – so there was constant displacement.

Question 12

What did Shaw & McKay claim regulated crime?

Answer 12

The nature of the neighbourhood – not the nature of the individuals within the neighbourhood

Question 13

What examples of neighbourhood organisation lead to the need for juvenile delinquency?

Answer 13

Parental oversite, fulfillment of youth’s needs, education;

Affluent areas didn’t struggle with the allocation of resources;

Transitional communities were always strained by growth, transience, the racial & ethnic mix (heterogeneity) & poverty leading to social disorganisation

Question 14

What do ghettos and slums produce?

Answer 14

Criminal traditions which are transmitted across generations of boys

Question 15

What were the measurements of social disorganization in a 1989 British study?

Answer 15

Strength of local friendship networks, residents’ participation in community organisations & the extent of unsupervised teenage peer groups

Question 16

What did Sutherland refined social disorganisation into?

Answer 16

Differential social organization

Question 17

What was Sutherland’s proposition as to why participants are attracted to crime?

Answer 17

The “competition “ between criminal culture & conventional culture

Question 18

What were the roles of differential association & differential social organisation?

Answer 18

Differential association acted as a social psychological theory explaining why individuals came to crime; and Differential social organisation (structural) explained why rates were higher in certain areas

Question 19

What are the key points of Differential Association?

Answer 19

Criminal behaviour is learned.

Criminal behaviour is learned with other persons through communication.

The main part is learned through intimate personal groups.

This learning includes: techniques which can be complicated or simple; and specific direction of motives, drives, rationalisations & attitudes.

Specific direction of motives & drives is learned form definitions of legal codes as favourable & unfavourable.

One becomes delinquent b/c of an excess of defns. supporting breaking the law (differential assoc.).

Diff. Assocs. May vary in: frequency, duration, priority & intensity.

The processes of learning either non/criminal behaviour involves all the mechanisms of normal learning.

The general needs & values expressed by the expression of criminal behaviour are shared by those expressing non-criminal behaviour

Question 20

In summary, what can the Differential Association theory be described as?

Answer 20

A general explanation of crime

Question 21

What inspired the Collective Efficacy Theory?

Answer 21

Social Sources of Delinquency (Kornhauser) combining the Chicago School/Shaw & McKay’s approach and Hirschi’s Control theory but taken to a macro-level (beyond the individual).

Question 22

What is systemic theory?

Answer 22

The powerful influence of informal social control by the community

Question 23

What are the three stages of community control?

Answer 23

The private - intimate relationships amongst family & friends;

The parochial – those met through daily life; shops, schools, church, voluntary groups etc.;

The public - relationships with external groups such as police, government, social service) that provide resources for maintaining order.

Question 24

What has Sampson argued to replace the private category of community control?

Answer 24

A form of neighbourhood/ “good neighbour” ethos replaces this and that neighbours can be relied upon to band together to resist trouble

Question 25

What was Sampson’s main argument behind Collective Efficacy Theory?

Answer 25

Collective Efficacy went beyond the notions of social disorganisation theory and systemic theory as a state of being i.e. a lived experience to a capacity that could be called upon when trouble emerged

Question 26

What is the big question about Collective Efficacy?

Answer 26

Whether CE is truly novel or just the other side of social disorganisation

Question 27

What is the explanation of crime in Cultural Attenuation Theory?

Answer 27

The explanation is in the extent to which people believe in and are tied to the conventional culture

Question 28

What moderates people’s behaviour?

Answer 28

Belief in a value consensus

Question 29

What do communities need?

Answer 29

Common values

Question 30

What decreases one’s allegiance to conventional values?

Answer 30

Concentrated disadvantage & residential mobility

Question 31

What is Legal Cynicism Theory?

Answer 31

for middle class neighbourhoods expectations of crime are low when experienced when it does occur they expect (& receive appropriate police responses).

Question 32

What is crime attributable to in Cultural Deviance Theory?

Answer 32

Lower class culture as a whole (not just subcultures within) – crime is a focal concern (definitional of the group). Delayed gratification, achievement & success cf. physical prowess, freedom from authority & excitement

Question 33

What is the difference between “street families” and poor families?

Answer 33

While some poor families struggle successfully to impart decent values, ”street families” are less able to transmit these values

Question 34

What do people of the street seek?

Answer 34

They seek respect through status displays, flamboyant dress and overt displays of masculinity building up credibility through the “nerve” that you show

Question 35

What is the key point of Acker’s Social Learning Theory?

Answer 35

Social location differentially exposes individuals to learning environments conducive to illegal conduct

Question 36

What are the four basic concepts of Social Learning Theory?

Answer 36

Differential association: exposure to definitions un/favourable to ill/legal behaviour

Definitions: the individuals attitudes & meanings attached to a given behaviour. How they justify, define, rationalise, moralise an act as good/bad, un/desirable, un/justified. Approval leads to action

Imitation: or modelling – engages in observed behaviour. This is the initial stage

Differential Reinforcement: the assessment of rewards/punishment flowing from a particular behaviour. Reinforcement is generally social in nature