Summary Of The Great Disruption

While many criminologists seek to answer why criminals commit crime, Fukuyama examines criminality regarding the causes, but also places significance on the impact that it has on social capital. The Great Disruption focuses on declining social order and moral disorder. Fukuyama assesses this through social capital which is defined as “... a set of informal values or norms shared among members of a group that permits cooperation among them” (Fukuyama, 16). One of the ways the novel analyzes social capital is through its absence in society, this is conducted by looking at data on family dysfunction, trust and values, and crime. When looking at criminality and the great disruption, high crime rates are indicative of a low social capital (Fukuyama, 122).

As described by Fukuyama, the great disruption was characterized by an increase in social deviance and crime, involving acts such as vagrancy, graffiti writing, public drunkenness, and panhandling (Fukuyama, 34). It was also found by Fukuyama, that in the absence of formal rules such as criminal laws to restrict these deviant behaviors, informal laws become increasingly evident. Illustrating these informal controls is the act of gossiping within a community, which is a more efficient social control mechanism in smaller communities. As communities continue to develop, more formal control mechanisms such as police officers and court systems need be utilized to keep criminality under control (Fukuyama,