Topic 11: Crime and locality - won't come up Flashcards
Functionalism - social disorganisation and zones of transition - Shaw and Mckay
Shaw and McKay began plotting the location of the addresses of those who committed crimes in Chicago. The results showed that, if they divided the city into concentric zones, Out of five zones they identified, zone two, which was nearest the city centre, had the highest rates. they also found that because of rapid social change, the population living in zone two was changing regularly. This meant that there was something about the zones which was linked to crime rates, rather than individuals who lived there.
Functionalism - social disorganisation and zones of transition - Shaw and Mckay 2
They suggested that, as each successive wave of immigrants arrived in the city they were moved into the cheapest and least desirable zones, some moved out with success, others didn’t. This pattern of high population turnover created a state of social disorganisation, where the informal mechanisms of social control that normally hold people back from criminal behaviour were weak or absent.
Functionalism - social disorganisation and zones of transition - Shaw and Mckay Evaluation
These theories assume there are common values in a society, shared by most people. Crime occurs in areas where these shared values break down. Many sociologists, such as Marxists, question whether or not shared values exist in our complex and multi-cultural society.
Left Realism – relative deprivation and the inner city
Lea and Young pointed out that it is not poverty or unemployment which directly causes crime, as despite the high unemployment experienced in the economic depression in Britain from the late 1920s-30s, crime rates were considerably lower than they were in the boom years of the 1980s. Young people living in inner cities and social housing estates are likely to suffer from higher levels of deprivation than those from more affluent areas. They see wealth around them in other parts of the city and in the media. However, they have few opportunities to gain access to this wealth and feel marginalized and powerless. One response is to commit crime to achieve that wealth.
Left Realism – relative deprivation and the inner city 2
Lea and Young also point to the ‘military- style’ policing that often goes on in urban areas, particularly targeted against members of minority ethnic groups. Tactics like ‘stop and search’ alienate and criminalise many people and this can lead to the formation of subcultures.
Left Realism – relative deprivation and the inner city eval
Hughes argues that it fails to explain the real causes of street crime. Left Realists have not gathered empirical data about offenders’ motives. He also attacks Left Realism for its reliance on sub -cultural theory which has been heavily criticised.
It is not surprising that there is a lot of policing in inner city areas as these are the places where there is most violent crime, fear of crime and social disorder. The police are protecting the public and responding to public concerns.
Right Realism – the breakdown of social control in urban areas
Wilson on broken windows + Wilson notes that public housing estates are more likely to experience social problems such as drugs, graffiti and vandalism and these are more likely to be found around high-rise tower blocks. Wilson argues these problems arise because residents do not take responsibility for the common entrances, stairwells and lifts and consequently anti-social elements take over.
Right Realism – the breakdown of social control in urban areas 2
The impact of local authority housing decisions was clarified much later by the work of Bottoms who compared two similar local authority housing estates, separated by a dual carriageway. One of the estates ‘Gardenia’ had a 300 per cent higher number of offenders and a 350 per cent higher level of crimes than ‘Stonewall’. The difference according to him was the result of a process of which he named tipping. Meaning Gardenia is known as a bad neighbourhood so law abiding citizens won’t want to move there. The estate has ‘tipped’ and becomes increasingly regarded as a problem estate
Right Realism – the breakdown of social control in urban areas eval
Right Realists are criticised for ignoring the impact of stratification and poverty on rates of offending and at the same time they are criticised for accepting official statistics uncritically.
broken windows eval
Intro
Rural areas tend to contain relatively close-knit communities where people are able to exercise far higher levels of personal social control over people that they know. In urban areas, the opposite may be true, insofar as most social relationships tend to be relatively impersonal and hence lacking in close personal ties. In such areas, the influence of informal social controls may be much weaker.
Conclusion
Hobbs and Lister - the ‘nocturnal economy’. They point out that in the last fifteen years there has been a huge growth in pubs and clubs, where people consume alcohol, and possibly also drugs and to enjoy oneself. Almost three quarters of all violent incidents in urban areas occur during the weekend between 9pm and 3am, usually by and between groups of young males fuelled by drink and/or drugs.
