CCJ 230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Social Disorganization Theory, Oneword

• School: URI
• Department: Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Course: CCJ 230
• Professor: Costello

Document Summary

Noticed that delinquency rates were highest in the inner city slum areas. During the late 1800s-1900s there were successive waves of immigrants from different countries coming to the u. s. Immigrants settle in low rent slum areas, became more successful and move out. Their crime rates went down, but crime rates stayed high in slum areas even though the groups living there were different. Social structural explanations make reference to the objective conditions of a society- how a system as a whole affects behavior, the situation people are in, broadly defined. A social structural-complete population change-people from different countries, etc. crime rates stayed high-it was the area, not the people. Slum areas-> social disorganization-> low levels of cohesion, integration, or solidarity=low informal social control=crime. Felson would not say, because people in suburban areas are wealthier and have better stuff . It implies that people are willing to travel long distances to commit crime-this violates the principle of easy opportunity.