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Now I would like to take a step back and examine how well I believe each of these theories explains the events of that night. I see strong evidence for both of these theories and how they each explain what occurred that evening, and I hope that my discussion of those topics made that clear. At the same time, no theory applies perfectly, and so I will begin my critique by looking at social disorganization theory. Where I feel social disorganization theory is lacking when applied to this scenario is that though all 3 factors that Shaw and McKay describe were met in that neighborhood, I saw some very strong social controls, particularly from the older generations in the neighborhood. Churches were extremely active in the area, and everyone on the team knew games and practices would never be held on Sundays for this very reason. The Police Athletic League itself was also a strong social institution there. Many of the staff and coaches were police officers and they interacted with parents and players constantly and very openly discussed the issues that the local area faced. As I mentioned before, I also do not feel that there was a high level of populaton mobility in this area, as the people who still lived there were too poor to move away and there was not a large influx of new immigrants or people moving into the area either. Instead, the older people who had lived here when times were better and were thus more established had permanent residences that they took care of and invested time and money in. Their houses were humble, but they did the best with what they had. It seemed that in reality it was the younger population that moved around within the area constantly. To my knowledge, there really has not been a study of whether pop...

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...y high school sports. Then, the community that they specifically lived in as younger members of society did have a high level of population mobility so they had no neighbors with close ties to hold them accountable, and they were certainly very impoverished and lacked the education change this fact. When one couples this with what social deprivation theory describes, the strain of being so poor and surrounded by so much wealth that one is told they must achieve to be successful it is easy to see how these young men fell into a subculture, the gang lifestyle, that expressly valued and encouraged a lack of education, the use of violence to solve problems, and immediate gratification. When one considers these theories, and the factors they describe, in concert it serves as very probable explanation of why, on an autumn evening, 4 young men went out and never went home.

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