Key Terms
Branch of social structure theory that focuses on the breakdown of institutions such as the family, school, and employment in low-income neighborhoods.
What is this definition?
Social Disorganization Theory
Who founded this theory
Who founded this theory?
Robert Agnew
Who founded this theory?
Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay
What is demographic is most "subject" to strain theory
Minorities
Branch of social structure theory that sees crime as a function of the conflict between people’s goals and the means available to obtain them.
What is this definition?
Strain Theory
How was this theory invented/discovered?
Shaw and McKay linked life in disorganized transitional urban areas to neighborhood crime rates
How was this theory discovered/invented?
Analyzing the disconnect between goals in society and the available means to achieve them.
Shaw and McKay studied crime patterns in Chicago in the 1900s.
What is cultural deviance theory.
Branch of social structure theory that sees strain and social disorganization together resulting in a unique lower-class culture that conflicts with conventional social norms.
What is this definition?
Cultural Deviance Theory
What model maps out the structure of cities in distinct ecological zones?
Concentric Zone Model
What is RGST or racialized general strain theory
African Americans are more likely to do crime because they are put under more strain in the American cutler.
This theory combines the effects of social disorganization and strain to explain how people living in deteriorated neighborhoods react to social isolation and economic deprivation.
What two theories were founded in Chicago?
Social Disorganization Theory
Cultural Deviance Theory
Areas undergoing a shift in population and structure, usually from middle-class residential to lower-class mixed-use.
What is this definition?
Transitional Neighborhoods
What are some transitional neighborhood characteristics? (please list at least 2)
High rates of poverty
Poor housing conditions
Weak social institutions
Informal social control
What is an anomie
An anomie is when values, customs, and norms have become inoperative in a society rapidly.
Groups that are loosely part of the dominant culture but maintain a unique set of values, beliefs, and traditions.
What is subculture?
They gamble away their money and now need money to pay off their debt and rob a bank
what theory is this?
Strain theory
Groups that are loosely part of the dominant culture but maintain a unique set of values, beliefs, and traditions.
What is this definition?
What are gangs?
Groups that form to provide youth with a sense of belonging
How is anomie theory and strain theory different?
anomie theory is about the breakdown of the norms where strain is about how wanting to be the norm.
People who have close personal ties to the neighborhood, may find that community norms interfere with their personal desire neighborhood improvement.
Why do subcultural norms often clash with conventional values?
Schools are underfunded, businesses shut down, and police response is slow. With no strong social institutions to provide stability, gangs recruit young people, and crime becomes a normal part of life in the area.
What theory is this?
Social Disorganization Theory