Criminology And Social Disorganization Theory

Criminology has always been an area of ardent interest for researchers, especially over the most recent decades. As crime rates have continued to vary over the decades, the study of criminology has increased as a result, thus, becoming more prominent than ever before. Theories, both at the micro and macro level of society, have been developed by many criminologists in order to explain the increases and decreases of the crime rate over the years and why certain factors tend to affect criminal behavior. By utilizing theories, researchers have been able to seek the best solutions available in order to apply them to policies in which they firmly believe will reduce the overall crime rate. One of the most prominent theories used today by criminologist to explain the variations in crime rates across communities is social disorganization theory in which was developed during the year of 1942, by Clifford Shaw and Henry D. McKay, two criminology researchers from the Chicago School of criminology. Social disorganization theory sought to link certain neighborhood characteristics, such as residential mobility, heterogeneity of a population, and socioeconomic status, to crime rates by studying the impact that characteristics have on a neighborhoods ability to institute

Conceptually Kurbin (2009) noted that there are a wide variety of things in which constitute a neighborhood, therefore making it quite difficult to conceptually define. Kurbin (2009) also noted that in terms of operationalization, neighborhoods are often measured in different measurements, thus making the boundaries of a city often difficult to track and measure. What constitutes a neighborhood and how a neighborhood should exactly be measured are issues associated with social disorganization theory that have yet to be fully resolved (Kurbin,