SOCY 275 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Social Disorganization Theory, Socioeconomic Status, Social Control
15 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
WEEK 7
Routine Activities/Lifestyle Exposure (Felson, and Cohen/Hindelang, Gottfredson, and
Garofalo)e
- Role expectations
o Associated with certain demographic characteristics
o The way you are expected to behave and be, differ based on different
demographic characteristics
o Demographic factors
▪ Age
• Babies – parents protect them. Spend most time with parents
• As one gets older this changes – they go to school and become
more independent
• As a teenager you spend more time away from home
• When finished school you get a job – that changes the routine –
you are in a job that takes away a lot of your time
• End up retiring and there is no job to take up your time
• As we age, our routines change – have a lifestyle that is much
more conservative as we age
▪ Gender
• Different structural constraints placed on people whether they are
male or female
• Gender is an important indicator of lifestyle
• Generally, males are given more freedom and time away from the
home and less supervision
• Females behaviour tends to be more restricted and supervised
• Men are more likely to be more risk takers
• Females are more likely to be risk averse
▪ Marital status
• Marriage or partnering up alters routines and lifestyle patterns
particularly if you have children
• More time spent with family – leisure time out of the home is often
with family
• Spend time with other people who are also married with children
• People who are single and unattached are likely to have different
lifestyles – hangout with other single people
▪ Family income and race
• Socioeconomic status influences lifestyle patterns – influences
where you live, mode of transportation, where you engage in
leisure
• People of upper social class live in different neighbourhoods than
people of lower social class
• Racial minorities in the lower class
- Structural constraints
o Limitations that are put on people’s behaviour because of particular arrangements
o E.g. things associated with family, school, job
o Socioeconomic factors
- Role expectations and structural constraints come together and influence how you behave
and influences risk of victimization
3 things for victimization to happen
- Need motivated offender
- They must intersect in time and space with a vulnerable or attractive victim
- That victim should lack “guardianship” – nothing to protect them
The probability of suffering a personal victimization is directly related to the amount of time a
person spends in public places and particularly public places at night
The probability of being in public places particularly at night varies as a function of lifestyle –
likely young people, non married, males, of low socioeconomic status – this means that these
people are more likely to be victimized because they are spending time with offenders
Social contacts and interactions occur disproportionately among individuals who share similar
lifestyles
An individual’s chances of personal victimization are dependent upon the extent to which the
individual shares demographic characteristics with offenders
The proportion of time that an individual spends among non-family members varies as a function
of lifestyle
The probability of personal victimization, particularly personal theft, increases as a function of
the proportion of time that an individual spends among non-family members – young single
males are likely to spend less time with family and more time with non family members.
Variations in lifestyle are associated with variations in the ability to isolate themselves from
persons with offender characteristics
Variations in lifestyle are associated with variance in the convenience, the desirability (someone
who has something you want, someone who won’t go to the police), and the vincibility (how
easy is it going to be to steal something) of the persona s a target for personal victimization
Social disorganization theory (Shaw and McKay)
Focused on what it is about communities that leave them more likely to have crime take place
- Poverty
o Lots of people in state support, lots renting,
- Mobile population
o Transient population – lots of people moving in and out
o Constantly shifting population
- Population heterogeneity
o Lots of different types of people are living in the community
o E.g. recent immigrants, people first moving to the area
- Social disorganization—a community that is not able to realize its values
o Cultural disorganization
▪ Diverse subcultures
• Population heterogeneity
• All share common values (e.g. believe that crime is bad) but they
cannot communicate these values to one another (because of
language, reluctance to communicate with people who are different
from them)
• They don’t realize that they share the same values
▪ Obsolete subcultures
• Sometimes people moving from different locations may handle
situations like adapting to the new area, in a way that does not suit
their new environment
▪ Unstable community
• Mobile population
• Continually breaks down any common understanding
▪ Irrelevant societal culture
• Societal culture is there to guide our behaviour (economic goals,
employment success etc)
• To a person who just moved to a new area, this societal culture
isn’t really that important
▪ ALL LEADS TO No strong common culture to guide behaviour in the
community
• What is accepted and tolerated in terms of behaviour
o Structural disorganization
▪ Insufficient resources
• Schools with good teachers are not found in these neighbourhoods
• Not many parks or programs to help kids develop some sort of
attachment or commitment to the general society
▪ No intermediate structures
• Lack of a creation of these structures
• State provides with schools
• But recreational programs and libraries need to be organized by the
community and it often fails to emerge in these areas.
▪ Isolation of institutions
• No communication between the institutions
• Parents don’t know what is going on at school
Document Summary
Routine activities/lifestyle exposure (felson, and cohen/hindelang, gottfredson, and. Role expectations: associated with certain demographic characteristics, the way you are expected to behave and be, differ based on different demographic characteristics, demographic factors, age, babies parents protect them. Structural constraints: limitations that are put on people"s behaviour because of particular arrangements, e. g. things associated with family, school, job, socioeconomic factors. Role expectations and structural constraints come together and influence how you behave and influences risk of victimization. They must intersect in time and space with a vulnerable or attractive victim. That victim should lack guardianship nothing to protect them. The probability of suffering a personal victimization is directly related to the amount of time a person spends in public places and particularly public places at night. Social contacts and interactions occur disproportionately among individuals who share similar lifestyles. An individual"s chances of personal victimization are dependent upon the extent to which the individual shares demographic characteristics with offenders.
