Analysis Of Social Disorganization Theory

Social disorganization theory is a theory that states crime and criminal activity is “linked crime rates with neighborhood characteristics” according to the text, Introducing Criminological Thinking by authors Jon Heidt and Johannes P Whelldon (p169). People commit crimes according to this theory based on an idea that the community plays a big importance on understanding criminal behavior on a whole, rather than individual. This theory is set to understand crime from a macro point of view, instead of a macro, because it relies on that crime is related to the neighborhood’s outlook and sense of community. Social disorganization theory is deeply rooted in the Chicago school of criminological thought. However, in July of 1832, two statisticians …show more content…
Shaw and Mckay focused work on several variables: low economic status, residential mobility, ethnic heterogeneity, and less formal institutions. If a person experienced most of these variables they were more likely to have a community that has social disorganization theory, thus in turn to have higher levels of delinquency rates (Sampson and Groves). According to the work titled Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-Disorganization Theory, “a community’s level of social organization is measured in terms of local friendship networks, control of street-corner teenage peer groups, and prevalence of organizational participation” (Sampson and Groves). The early ideas of social disorganization theory are that newly arrived immigrants may lead to some weakening traditional social structures like family or religion and because of this it leads to more crime in general in the …show more content…
The concentric zone model can be linked to back to Robert Park, however, Ernest Burgess formalized and worked upon the data of Park and applied it to Chicago, according to the textbook (p173). Burgess exclaimed that each city had a “concentric ring pattern” and that there are five parts to this model, in which how expansion and growth in the city affects the social structure, in turn leads to crime. The first part of the ring is known as the central business district, which has skyscrapers, shopping places, and business. Then the second zone known as the zone in transition, which is the zone riddled with crime. The zone in transition has rent that is cheap, Burgess believes this attracts the poorest members of the city. The third is the working-class zone, which has single family tenements. The forth is called the residential zone. Finally, the fifth zone is the commuter