Anomie and social disorganization theory are reasoning as why individual turn to crimes. The focus is on the macro level (anomie) and micro level (social disorganization theory) of external environmental factors contributing to criminal behaviors. I think social disorganization theory is more beneficial in deterring crimes. It is more manageable to transform a neighborhood or concentrated area than a societal norm. The movement will require equivocal amount of resources with noticeable. By influencing changes at the micro level, as individual transition out of the area, they can impinge a positive attitude in a new environment. As numerous changes occurs on the micro level, it will eventually metamorphose into the macro level.
Vincent Nguyen
Professor Mcauley/TA: Arguera
Black Studies 7
27 November 2017
Oppression through Social Categorization
Gender roles and racial discrimination has changed in many ways throughout history as within recent societal representation. In the the early 1900s, woman wore skirts that brushed the floor, belted jackets, fancy dresses etc. In the early 1990s, women wore short dresses, heeled shoes, turtlenecks etc. In fact, every succeeding generation has brought with it different expectations for how races,women and men are viewed within society.
In Singleton’s movie social disorganization theory can be used to explain the condition of the neighborhood in which the protagonist live. Tre’s father, Furious, gives us insight into the condition of the neighborhood when he takes Tre and Ricky on a drive through the neighborhood to the billboard. On this ride we could see all of the social and physical vulgarities characteristic of social disorganization at work. During this scene we hear loud obscene music in the background companied by a woman shouting. Furious then delivers a speech in which he discusses the “selling of drugs” and “ shooting each other”. This scene showed that the neighborhood was not effective at controlling teenage peer groups, strong local friendship networks between the boys in the neighborhood was present, and that there was low participation in community organizations. Although there were strong local friendship ties, they were ineffective at controlling juvenile delinquency. The community met the Shaw and McKay definition of social disorganization because the residents were unable to realize their common ...
Crime is an in inevitable occurrence in today 's culture. Despite the best efforts of our country 's criminal justice system, crime continues to be on the rise. In an effort to reverse this rising tide, efforts are being made to understand the underlying cause of crime and factors that can lead an individual into the life of crime. From the sociological perspective, there are three theories that are used to explain the cause of crime. They are the social structure theory, the bad neighborhood theory, and the social process theory.
According to city-data.com the crime rates in Passaic, NJ are much higher compared to those cities that surround it. Theses cities include Wallington, Hasbrouck Heights, and East Rutherford. Data shown in city-data.com shows that the city of Passaic has more than double the crime rate than Wallington, Hasbrouck Heights and East Rutherford. But why? I believe that the reason crime rates are higher in Passaic than in the cities I mentioned above is because of the environment. The social disorganization theory states that the reason crime is committed is because of the environment a criminal is in. To find out if this is true I would have to do surveys and interviews in the city of Passaic.
To finalize, all these theories play a huge part of the reasons individuals commit crimes. An analysis of each theory has been examined and explained, the theories were the sociological disorganization theory, strain theory, cultural deviance theory, and the social process theory. Thanks to many sociologists and book authors, examples have been provided showing us and making us understand how it affects society and the crimes people commit in consequence.
Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that attempts to help us understand society and how people interact. As with many other social sciences, sociology employs theories to help understand why people make certain decisions. Theories that help us explain societal trends are usually segmented in order to accurately examine the specific dynamics of different sections of society. Communities, institutions, gender, race and population are a few popular examples of common segmentations utilized in social theories. Social structure theories, also called social change theories attempt to analyze the driving forces that change society. Sociologists who study social change use the study of both criminology and sociology to draw conclusions about criminal behavior. The overarching belief of criminology theory is that certain social structures support deviant behavior. The three main branches of social structure theories are the social disorganization theory, the social strain theory and the cultural deviance theory. How well have social structure theories explained delinquent behavior in society? In this paper, the major social structural theories will be defined and analyzed.
Crime is the action of committing an illegal act, whether it be delinquency, kidnapping, murdering, or any minor wrongdoing. Sociologists use three theoretical explanations to define why crime occurs. The individual-level explanation, the social structure explanation, and the interactive explanation (Becken 2013). There are two aspects of the individual-level explanation, the biological and the psychological/psychoanalytical. The biological level uses contemporary neuroscience to explain crime, while the psychoanalytical uses Freud and personality theories to explain serial killers, and abusers. The social structure explanation is defined by two theories, one which states that society needs crime to define normal “us” vs. “them” to build social cohesion, and the other states that courts and laws protect the rich and punish the poor to help maintain economic growth (Durheim et al via Becken 2013). Interactive explanations state that people commit crime because of their community and opportunity for crime (...
Robert Merton’s Strain Theory focuses mainly on crime being influenced by economic success. Everyone wants to climb the economic ladder and become wealthy and for some it is easier than for others. Merton’s theory believes that crime is linked tightly with social classes, when a class goes up then the crime rate goes down. This theory relies very strongly on the belief that people commit crimes solely to move up in the world and are fueled greatly by the need to become wealthier.
Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization theory had a profound impact on the study of the effects of urbanization, industrialization and immigration in Chicago neighborhood on crime and delinquency rates. However, Shaw and McKay faced much criticism when they first released their findings. One criticism of the social disorganization theory had to do with researcher’s ability to accurately test the social disorganization theory. Although Shaw and McKay collected data on characteristics of areas and delinquency rates for Chicago communities and were able to visually demonstrate a relationship between by using maps and other visuals, their research did not have an actually test that went along with it (Kurbin, 2010). Kurbin (2010) states that “the