SOC313H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Social Disorganization Theory, Anomie, Informal Social Control
Document Summary
If we can reduce the incentive to break rules, by giving people a :stake in conformity(cid:499) social control will be easier. A society will need less social control, and less costly social control, if we can prevent the criminal behaviours that require social control. Disadvantaged people are more likely to commit common crimes. The more unequal a society, the more often people will commit crimes, be victimized, and be punished for crime. The connection between crime and inequality is hard to measure. Researchers are often unable to show links between inequality and crime in the data. That(cid:495)s because the same factors that affect inequality also affect crime. Therefore, studying inequality and crime simultaneously can lead to confusing results individual variables vs societal variables. There is a complex connection between, macro-level (or societal) variables such as social inequality and micro-level (or personal) variables related to crime and victimization (such as age, sex, marital status, education, or income)
