During the late 1800s and early 1900s, northern cities such as Chicago were experiencing social problems because of population booms caused by “waves of immigrants, displaced farm workers, and blacks fleeing the rural south” (Gabbidon, 2010). By the 1920s the University of Chicago had put together a group of scholars to investigate the social ills plaguing the city. Together, these scholars combined their ideas to formulate what is now known as the “Chicago School” (Gabbidon, 2010). It was at the Chicago School where the concept of social disorganization was first introduced. Social disorganization by definition is a breakdown in the equilibrium of forces, a decay in the social structure, so that old habits and forms of social control no longer …show more content…
function effectively (Gabbidon, 2010). Around the same time, Ernest W. Burgess came out with the ecological approach when he examined the seven wards of Chicago. He found that rundown households, poverty, and the high levels of influence of the businesses in the city explained the high levels of youth delinquency in the fourth ward. He broke the city down into five concentric zones; Zone I, the “Loop,” is where the central business district are located; Zone II, the “slum,” is a combination of businesses and residences; Zone III, the workingman's zone, is where people who moved from Zone II now reside; Zone IV is the residential zone; Zone V is the suburbs and commuters' zone. Burgess predicted that the further away one moves from Zone I, the less crime will occur. He also noted that because of high concentration of mobility, Zone II produces the most social problems. Clifford Shaw and Henry D. McKay were the first to test Burgess's theory by examining juvenile delinquency. Instead of five concentric zones, Shaw and McKay divided the city into seven concentric zones and focused on things such as location of demolished buildings, population fluctuations, and the percentage of families on welfare. After conducting their test, they agreed with Burgess's theory but also added that Zone I had high delinquency rates well due to social disorganization. This literature review will examine the effect of social disorganization and the impact it has on juvenile delinquency. In August of 2005, Chris Knoester and Dana L.
Haynie published a study, Community Context, Social Integration Into Family, and Youth Violence, in order to analyze the extent to which neighborhood-level family structure and feelings of family integration will predict an adolescent's risk of committing violence (Knoester & Haynie, 2005). They suggested that they expect adolescents who live in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of single-parent families are more likely to engage in violence. Secondly, they hypothesize the risk of engaging in violence can be reduced with higher levels of social integration into family. Due to family structure being associated with both youth violence and social integration into the family, they predicted an adolescent's risk of committing violence in three separate models depending on whether adolescents perceive that they have (a) two parents residing at home, (b) two resident parents and one or more nonresident parents, or (c) one resident parent (Knoester & Haynie …show more content…
2005). Lastly, they hypothesize that neighborhood-level family structure may moderate the relationship between social integration into family and youth violence in one of two ways.
First is that social integration into family has a stronger negative effect on the risk of youth violence in neighborhoods with higher proportions of single-parent families. Secondly, social integration into family has a weaker effect on the risk of youth violence in neighborhoods with higher proportions of single-parent families (Knoester & Haynie, 2005). Essentially, for those adolescents living in neighborhoods with higher proportions of single-parent families social integration into family does not have much effect in deterring violent
behavior. In order to test their hypotheses, they used data samples of adolescents in Grades 7-12 from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Between 1994 and 1996, 90,118 students among 125 randomly selected schools were given self-administered questionnaires answering a series of demographic, school, and health-related questions. A random smaller sample of adolescents completed in-home surveys. Within 1 year of their in-school interviews 200 adolescents from a combination of 80 junior high and high schools were selected to be interviewed at home. Because of factors such as school participation, lack of a parent interview and missing data, the final sample was based on 16,910 respondents from 2,194 neighborhoods. To measure violence involvement, respondents were asked if they were involved in a serious physical fight, seriously injured another person, participated in a group fight, used or threatened to use a weapon, pulled a knife or gun on someone, or shot or stabbed someone in the past year (Knoester & Haynie, 2005). Violence involvement was measured in a four response categories ranging from not involved during the past year to involved 5 or more times. The results from their findings proved to be consistent with social disorganization theory in that “living in a neighborhood with relatively high proportions of single-parent families increases the likelihood that an adolescent will commit violence-even after accounting for family structure and background characteristics that may select families into disadvantaged neighborhoods” (Knoester & Haynie, 2005). Their findings demonstrated that family structure at a neighborhood-level assumes a part in a juvenile's probability of committing violence. The results also supported their hypothesis as they discovered neighborhood-level family structure decides the degree to which social mix into family is contrarily connected with youth violence. In higher danger situations, social reconciliation into family gives off an impression of being less viable in counteracting youth violence.
Children from a single-parent home that are relatively conflict-free are less likely to be a delinquent than children from conflict-ridden “intact” homes. A stable, secure, and mutually supportive family is exceedingly important
Anderson, E. (1998). The social ecology of youth violence. Crime and Justice, 24(Youth Violence), 65-104. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1147583
Chicago in the 1920s was a turning point for the development of ethnic neighborhoods. After the opening of the first rail connection from New York to Chicago in the 1840s, immigration sky rocketed from that point on. Majority of the immigrants to Chicago were Europeans. The Irish, Italians, eastern European Jews, Germans, and Mexicans were among the most common ethnicities to reside in Chicago. These groups made up the greater part of Chicago. The sudden increase in immigration to Chicago in the 1920s soon led to an even further distinguished separation of ethnicities in neighborhoods. The overall development of these neighborhoods deeply impacted how Chicago is sectioned off nowadays. Without these ethnicities immigrating to Chicago almost 100 years ago, Chicago neighborhoods would not be as culturally defined and shaped as they are today.
In the 1920s, Harlem, New York had reached a cultural peak; “it became the most famous and influential black American ghetto” (Weisbrot). With the migration of African Americans to the north, Harlem became heavily concentr...
Burg, David F. Chicago’s White City of 1893. Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky, 1976.
Risk factors are centered around parents and caregivers, who is a child’s first form off insight on how relationships and ultimately how the world and its inhabitants function. In many cases, if the caregiver is not emotionally or financially stable, which puts a child at a much higher risk to experience some form of abuse. This concept is prevalent throughout Jorja Leap’s book “Jumped in.” Many of the people who joined the gang life resorted to the hood because their parents were either incarcerated, too drugged out, or dead. This is a form of abuse and this emotional trauma leads the children to turn to find another form of family, which is the “hood.” Community violence is usually a negative result that comes from some form of child abuse at a very early age. As the CDC states “concentrated neighborhood disadvantage (e.g., high poverty and residential instability, high unemployment rates, and high density of alcohol outlets), and poor social connections” are a high risk factor for child to experience abuse. In “Jumped in” one of the characters, Johann speaks about how she felt abandoned by her own mother. She explains how her mother was “no damn good. She left [her] so many times. She never there when [she] need[ed] her… and she makes [her] feel like shit” (JI-Leap). Furthermore, another character explained how his “mother [was] gone and [his] father [he] never knew, [he] knows this, [he] knows [his] neighborhood” (JI-Leap). In addition another high risk factor is unwanted pregnancy by teenagers who themselves are still in the process of development.
Almost 100 years ago, Chicago saw its population double in a short span of time - the majority of the newcomers being foreign-born. There were also many Americans that were migrating into the city at this time. With large amounts of foreigners bringing with them their own set of beliefs and norms, ideological clashes and a lack of conformity was inevitable. Merton’s Modes of Adaptation comes into play here with foreigners coming to a new land and having to re-adapt. This can lead to increased rates of ritualism, retreatism, rebellion and innovation and this means an increase in crime rates.
According to Cullen and Agnew (2011) the Social Disorganization theory was developed in the mid 1940’s by Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay while they were researchers studying at the Institute for Social Research in Chicago. Shaw and McKay (1942) based their research of the study of crime in Chicago off of the work that Ernest Burgess theorized in how urban areas grow through a process of continual expansion from their inner core toward outlying areas. According to Cullen and Agnew (20011) one of the primary arguments in the social disorganization theory is the idea that there are settlement patterns in the development of cities, and how these patterns impact neighborhood characteristics and corresponding crime levels. Shaw and McKay developed a theory based off the settlement pattern research that Ernest Burgess conducted. According to Cullen and Agnew (2011) Ernest Burgess stated ...
Theorists believe that Shaw and McKay were biased when they wrote their conclusion on the lower-class neighborhood. This in turn resulted in other critics questioning if the demographics such as socio-economic, the setting of the communities and the population that composed the communities were indicators of social disorganization or if social theorists constitute their reasoning based on their own beliefs. According to Kurbin (2010), Criminologist Edwin Sutherland preferred to call Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization theory the differential social organization because of his belief that “the organization of the delinquent group, which is often very complex, is social disorganization only from an ethical or some other particularistic point of view.” This may be interpreted as him stating that a social group, such as a delinquent one, is only perceived as “disorganized” based on personal biases. According to Sutherland, some urban neighborhoods are not disorganized but organized based on the daily needs of the unique community. For example, if an outsider born and raised in a community with different set of values looks into a community with another perspective on how to function in a social environment, the outsider may think that they are wrong and ridiculous for living in such a matter. The outsider
...will be seen right away, for example the link between socioeconomic status, as well as between housing and delinquent behavior. The advantage of using this study design is that it can show protective factors that might deter delinquent behavior. If a student has a greater commitment to school they are less likely to have incidents with criminal behavior, or show less of a desire to associate with peers who commit specific criminal behavior. As a result of using the analysis, risk and protective factors could serve as basis for research in the future. In addition, interventions based on imparting strategies for coping could be developed. There is still much work to be done to fully explain why youths commit crimes, but this study will help gain insight and understanding of the ways that specific factors influence various types of violent and nonviolent delinquency.
An outburst in growth of America’s big city population, places of 100,000 people or more jumped from about 6 million to 14 million between 1880 and 1900, cities had become a world of newcomers (551). America evolved into a land of factories, corporate enterprise, and industrial worker and, the surge in immigration supplied their workers. In the latter half of the 19th century, continued industrialization and urbanization sparked an increasing demand for a larger and cheaper labor force. The country's transformation from a rural agricultural society into an urban industrial nation attracted immigrants worldwide. As free land and free labor disappeared and as capitalists dominated the economy, dramatic social, political, and economic tensions were created. Religion, labor, and race relations were questioned; populist and progressive thoughts were developed; social Darwinism and nativism movements were launched.
Therefore, the community has informal social control, or the connection between social organization and crime. Some of the helpful factors to a community can be informal surveillance, movement-governing rules, and direct intervention. They also contain unity, structure, and integration. All of these qualities are proven to improve crime rate. Socially disorganized communities lack those qualities. According to our lecture, “characteristics such as poverty, residential mobility, and racial/ethnic heterogeneity contribute to social disorganization.” A major example would be when a community has weak social ties. This can be caused from a lack of resources needed to help others, such as single-parent families or poor families. These weak social ties cause social disorganization, which then leads higher levels of crime. According to Seigel, Social disorganization theory concentrates on the circumstances in the inner city that affect crimes. These circumstances include the deterioration of the neighborhoods, the lack of social control, gangs and other groups who violate the law, and the opposing social values within these neighborhoods (Siegel,
Slovak, K., Carlson, K. & Helm, L. (2007). The Influence of Family Violence on Youth Attitudes. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal 24(1).
Families serve as one of the strongest socializing forces in a person's life. They help teach children to control unacceptable behavior, to delay gratification, and to respect the rights of others. Conversely, families can also teach children aggressive, antisocial, and violent behavior. In adults' lives, family responsibilities may provide an important stabilizing force. Given these possibilities, family life may directly contribute to the development of delinquent and criminal tendencies. Parental conflict and child abuse correlate with delinquency. Though not all children who grow up in conflictive or violent homes become delinquent, however, being exposed to conflict and violence appears to increase the risk of delinquency. At this point, researchers have not pin pointed what factors exactly push some at-risk youth into delinquency. A child with criminal parents faces a greater likelihood of becoming a delinquent than children with law-abiding parents. However, the influence appears not to be directly related to criminality but possibly to poor supervision.
...ng up in a single-parent home (usually female-headed) is seven times as likely to be a delinquent. The rate of violent crime and burglary is related to the number of single parent households with children aged twelve to twenty. (1)In a new study of 72 adolescent murders and 35 adolescent thieves, researches for Michigan State University demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of teenage criminals live with only one parent. Fully 75 percent of those charged with homicide had parents who were either divorced or had never been married at all.( 5)