Social Structure Theories

Frank Schmalleger explains the theory of social disorganization as one that depicts both social change as well as conflict, and lack of any agreement as the origin of its cause for both criminal behavior as well as nonconformity to society and closed associated with the ecological school of criminology (Schmalleger, 2012, p. 152). The philosophy behind the organization and structure of a society and how that contributes to criminal behavior within society is by stressing poverty, economic conditions, lack of education, lack of skills, are not sought-after in the work place, and divergent cultural values. Criminal behavior is the result of the person’s assignment of location within the structure of society.

Sociological theories of crime contain a great deal of useful information in the understanding of criminal behavior. Sociological theories are very useful in the study of criminal behavior because unlike psychological and biological theories they are mostly macro level theories which attempt to explain rates of crime for a group or an area rather than explaining why an individual committed a crime. (Kubrin, 2012). There is however some micro level sociological theories of crime that attempts to explain the individual’s motivation for criminal behavior (Kubrin, 2012). Of the contemporary

Social disorganization theory was established by Shaw and Mckay (1942) in their famous work “Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas”. The main argument of the social disorganization theory is that, the place where people live will influence the individual’s behavior, and this may lead them to crimes. More precisely, certain characteristics of the neighborhood/community will strengthen or weaken the informal social control within the community, and this has mediating effect on crimes.

The assumption with this theory is that those neighborhoods that are disorganized and messy will have higher crime rates than neighborhoods that are clean and orderly. In neighborhoods that are messy and disorganized, it starts to become the norm, and there starts to become less control that leads to disorder and crime.

In this paper I will examine the social structure theory, along with its definition and how the different types of theories make up the social structure theory. I will also attempt to discuss the strain, culture conflict, and social disorganization theory all of which make up the social conflict theory. I also wish to discuss the video “Tent City, Arizona” and answer the following questions, “How does the video you selected support a social structure theory? What is the primary subject or content of the video? What social issues are raised in the video? What major principles of sociological theory are addressed in the video? What might be some possible ramifications for social policy change?”

A society with an internal consensus of social norms and cultural values is essentially the BASIS of a social system. Contrarily, this system is labeled socially disorganized when there is a breakdown in social control or SOMETHING among its elements. The theory suggest the absence or reduction of cohesion and solidarity in a community, will result in a increase of crime rates and deviant behavior. To support these

The social disorganization theory is directed towards social conditions. This theory argues that crime is due to social conflicts, change, and lack of consensus in the group.

The basic structure is that the social disorganization theory is based on the Durkheim’s argument, social changes led to the collapse of maintaining the social orders which then lead to crime growth. This theory is formed by three factors. First, environmental factors, the living environment factors determine the wishes of people’s living. Second, population factors, the population flow rate in the community determine the formation of cultural values in the community. That is, lower flow rate means higher stability, the community cultural values are easy to form; on

There are several theories created by many thinkers of our time that believes that societal, financial, and social arrangements and/or structures as the main cause of criminal behavior. In society, depending on where you are, there are usually some unwritten norms that are expected to be followed. It can be in a business corporation, out in the streets, at home. Usually there will be two sets of norms that is expected to be followed that causes an individual to feel torn. However, the feeling of being torn is the inner battle of doing the right thing, conscience or keeping yourself alive.

This area was highly populated since the cost of housing was usually less expensive than in other areas away from the inner city. According to Shaw and McKay, this zone was the least appealing place to live and where social disorganization thrived. As more and more individuals entered this area, the original residents moved out (if they could afford to) and inhabited the next outer zone (or circle). The disruption, as people moved from zone to zone, caused the decline

The main assumption of Social Disorganization Theory is the ability to explain why crime committed by lower class communities is more prominent than neighborhoods from communities in better economic areas. This theory is the relationship of the destabilization of urban communities and neighborhoods through Shaw and McKay’s study (Quoted in Siegal, 2010) that used the analysis of Ernest Burgess’s Concentric Zones Model. This model generates ideas that the closer to “zone 2”, individuals in a community have more stress factors

The social structure theory deliberates delinquency as a gathering of the person’s dealings with numerous groups, organizations, and process in the society. Any person irrespective of their prominence in life is likely to become delinquents if they continue with negative social affiliations. Every aspect of the society, social and economic must be viewed using the social structure theories to find the cause of crime and deviance. The social structure theories consist of four types which include social disorganization theory, anomie theory, differential association theory, and labeling theory. Several theories offer different answers to this delinquent of influential the key features of a social group.

Ethnic Heterogeneity – Ethnic Heterogeneity also known as ethnic diversity is another variable associated with social disorganization theory that I consider to be one of the

The Social Disorganization theory is an intriguing theory that can be seen in our society today. This theory states that “disorganized communities cause crime because informal social controls break down and criminal cultures emerge” (Cullen 6). The city of Chicago was the predominate focus upon the construction of this theory. The reasoning for this was because Chicago was the fastest growing population in the 19th century, a population starting at 5,000 in 1800 and growing to 2 million in 1900, nearly doubling every decade. At this point in time, the city was composed of citizens who did not speak a common language nor shared the same cultural values. Due to this social divide, these community members were unable to organize themselves in

The ecological theory of crime, also known as social disorganisation of crime is a theory used to describe the difference in crime in association with physical environmental factors such as cultural and structural factors. In the 1970’s and 1980’s the term ‘environmental criminology’ was used until it became associated with environmental issues. This theory can also be defined as a positivist theory because it seeks to find out about human behaviour. For the ecological theory the causes of crime for example are found in the way of the physical environment, where people live and socially interact. This is what creates the conditions for criminal and non-criminal behaviour.