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Social disorganization theory critic
Social disorganization theory
Social disorganization theory critic
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Social disorganization theory critic
Social disorganization theory
Social disorganization theory critic
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Recommended: Social disorganization theory critic
In “The Code of the Streets”, Elijah Anderson go in details and shows us on how teens are getting killed on a daily basis. Dr. Anderson discuss some social intuitions that influence crime in the urban neighborhoods. The first one I would discuss is the “Decent and Street Families”. The Decent and Street Families represent two poles of value orientation, two contrasting conceptual categories Dr. Anderson stated. Decent residents judge themselves as for judging others in the streets as for streets families express themselves as a decent their not.
How well Wes Moore describes the culture of the streets, and particularly disenfranchised adolescents that resort to violence, is extraordinary considering the unbiased perspective Moore gives. Amid Moore’s book one primary theme is street culture. Particularly Moore describes the street culture in two cities, which are Baltimore and the Bronx. In Baltimore city the climate and atmosphere, of high dropout rates, high unemployment and poor public infrastructure creates a perfect trifecta for gang violence to occur. Due to what was stated above, lower income adolescent residents in Baltimore are forced to resort to crime and drugs as a scapegoat of their missed opportunities.
Exactly how culture impacts people depends on the environment of the culture as it can create deviant behavior. This theory is supported by Elijah Andersons’ Code of the Streets as, according to Anderson (2000), he indicates that crime is the result of varying cultural influences on the people within the community, specifically urban communities (p. 11). What better way to depict the effects of culture on a community than by comparing it to the community of Crenshaw? Crenshaw is filled with deviant behavior and this behavior has caused the people within the community to acclimate to it. Not only is the community filled with immoral behavior, but it is an area that is filled with struggling ethnic minorities.
Nowacki, suggest that family attachments and involvement decrease the likelihood to participate in “street code” mentality (pg. 832). The positive family attachments also reduce the likelihood of youth participating in activities due to peer pressure and can be explained by the theory of a “psychological presence” (Nowacki, pg. 841). Social organization and controlled neighborhoods, are also often backed by strong networks (church organizations, police presence, and youth activities) (Dummond, pg. 195). The combination of parental or familial involvement with strong social controls can often stop a neighborhood from being taken over by street code or decrease the negative impact the street code has on their neighborhood.
“Younger children witness the disputes of older children which are often resolved through cursing and abusive talk, if not aggression or out-right violence. ,” (105) This socialization of children by their elders who are living by the “code of the streets,” creates a continuation of the code. Not every child that grows up learning this as a way of life will ultimately end up continuing to live by this code but enough do continue to live this way that this
Criminal and conflict gang whose primarily intent of crimes for tangible gains. Social structure theorists consider that the main components to illegal behavior are the ascendancy of social and economic influences that are distinguished in rundown communities where the population is predominantly lower-class citizens (Siegel, 2010). This following theory goes into helping us comprehend ways the human behavior, is the result of physical
To expand my research to attain the goal of understanding specification of both explanations, The southern subculture of violence theory blames higher crime rates in the South on “cultural values that evolved from that region’s unique history” (Ousey, 2000:268). All cultural explanations are based on the social learning approach, which holds that criminality is learned through intimate interactions with others. Another example is that capital punishment is highest in the South. The economic deprivation explanation to differences of crime rates within regions of the country is synonymous with strain theories.
Elijah Anderson’s commentary Code of the Streets describes the unwritten laws in urban neighborhoods. Anderson considers the code to be a response to the stigma of race, excessive drug use, lack of high paying jobs, and lack of hope for the future. Respect or “juice” is at the heart of the code and in this environment, an individual is defined by the respect he commands from others (Anderson 6). Anderson argues that the poor have a different system of values than the middle and upper classes. He describes families in the lower class as either “decent” or “street (Anderson 2).
Informal controls once again act in a manner that supports the idea that when neighborhood adults interact in terms of obligations and expectations, they are able supervise and control the activities of children. When this is not present in neighborhoods, such as the one shown in the documentary The House I Live In, the result is the participation of youths in the drug trade and other aspects of criminal life. The destruction of the neighborhood has already been underway as a result of spatial mismatch, but worsens when the war on drug is factored in. These neighborhoods often suffer from the result of the policy known as broken windows policing that doesn’t make situations any better. The policy is predicated on the notion that where there are a few broken windows, there will be more if the windows are not repaired.
Social Disorganization theory directly links crime rates to neighborhood ecological characteristics. In other words, residential location is as significant as or more significant than the person 's individual characteristics, lower class areas have the highest crime rates. Cultural conflict, differential association, and social disorganization theories come together to explain how criminologist approach and analyze Cultural deviance theory. Cultural deviance theory has many strengths and weaknesses. The strengths of this theory is that it shows that illeagal opportunities are structured by society, it indicates why people become involved in a particular crime, and also presents ways to prevent deviant crime and behavior.
When someone discusses the social disorganization theory it is currently focus on the relationship between people crimes social control and deviant’s behaviors caused by the environment for example if u live in an area where most crimes were to happen like domestic abuse drug trafficking or gang violence then the people around or more likely to commit crimes than ones who live in good neighborhoods. Today in our community crime effects schools work even our own homes. According to Na’im H. Madyun the author of Connecting Social Disorganization Theory to African-American Outcomes article stated that “due to high poverty single parent households it is very difficult to create social ties to the community because they believe that society does not want to help the neighborhood who have very high crime rates”(Madyum) What he means by this statement is that when someone in a neighborhood even the school is effected by crime then most kids will end up being a delinquent at an early age for example they’ll start joining gangs by recruiting them through media or on the street and getting involve in crimes while they are in middle school or high school due to parents who go to work to work every day or might be addicted to drugs and abuse their kids in their own houses.
The theory states that when a community has high presence of informal social control the people are more likely to stand up to criminal activities. Furthermore,
In response to the inequality, individual acts by either “accepting, rejecting or substituting the cultural goals and institutionalized means” (Bayens, pg. 71) to suit their own needs. Moreover, the inequality between social statuses sparks the development of social disorganization theory which focuses on underprivileged neighborhood and community contributing to criminal behavior. The theory suggest that an individual become criminal because they are isolated for the mainstream culture and immersed in impoverished and dilapidated neighborhoods. Living in “hot
McKay developed the social disorganisation theory (Bond, 2015:1). The social disorganisation theory, which is regarded as one of the most important theories connected to ecological theories, was developed through Shaw and McKay’s research from the Chicago School of Criminology (Xiong, 2015:47). Social disorganisation theory is primarily utilised in order to examine the relationship which exists between the community and crime (Xiong, 2015:47). The social disorganisation theory presumes that criminal behaviour is the result of social as well as physical environments of an individual (Briggs, 2016:1). Consequently, an environment with unravelling social structures will most likely also have high crime rates (Briggs, 2016:1).
Differential Association Edwin Sutherland Theory proports that through interaction with others individuals learn values, attitudes, techniques, motives for criminal behaviour. Two different cultures exist, with one being criminal and the other conventional. Normal learning occurs through verbal and non verbal communication that helps to establish whether attitudes of individuals is favorable to law violation through normal learning processes by individuals who are disposed towards breaking the law. They develop motivation for engaging in criminal activity and attitudes that drives them to deviate. Different cycles of criminality can also influence their lives where criminal behavior occurs with intimate interactions through socialization.