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Social Disorganization Theory Vs Conflict Theory Analysis

1132 Words5 Pages

Much attention on crime comes from the crime itself, but have you ever considered what crime is, why it happens, the making of the law, and how people react to it (Adler et al., 2022)? Many theories in criminology examine factors contributing to deviance, including psychological, biological, social, and economic factors. Social structure plays a significant role, and two theories in criminology that explore this are conflict theory and social disorganization theory. The conflict theory was developed by George Vold in 1958, which says that social order is maintained by domination and power, which has disfavors and benefits to people according to their power (Hayes, 2024). The social disorganization theory created by Clifford Shaw and Henry McAky in 1942 argues …show more content…

On the other hand, social disorganization looks at crime from a macro point of view (Adler et al., 2022). It examines crime as patterns within the community and suggests that crime is caused by social disorganization, such as community breakdown. The scope of social disorganization theory is broad, focusing on crime at the community level rather than individual behavior. In contrast, conflict theory is even broader, examining crime across different classes and circumstances and focusing on the overall system rather than specific causes. Conflict theory and social disorganization theory have assumptions about crime, which help show how the theory approaches crime and societal dynamics. Conflict theory assumes that the power struggle between competing social groups is natural or inherent. It assumes that the law favors the powerful and that the system is biased. Little empirical evidence supports this, because it is hard to test this theory. Alan Lizotee studied cases and found that race and socioeconomic status did influence sentencing decisions, while some studies have shown the opposite. (Adler et al.,

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