Chapter 7 - notes PDF

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Chapter 7: Social Structure Theories SOCIOLOGICAL CRIMINOLOGY - Patterns of crime within social structure - Ecological distribution of crime (natural areas): zones or neighborhoods that’s develop as a result of social forces. Operating in urban areas that become natural areas for crime). - The effects of changing cultural norms, social institutions, and technology - The effect of socialization in family with peers Economic Structure and Crime Social Stratification: - Unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige Social Class: - People who have similar wealth, values, attitudes, and lifestyle - Super Rich, Upper, middle, and lower class Economic Structure and Crime Reduced poverty among the elderly - Access to healthcare, pensions, social security More Poverty among Full time workers - 17% of children n live in poverty (2017) - Baron: occupational strain solved by crime - Bolland: Hopelessness increases violence, substance use, sexual behaviour, and accidental injury. Inequality Lower class - Problems of housing, lack of healthcare, family breakups, underemployment - High levels of dropping out, teenage pregnancy Immigrants and racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be poor. - 24 percent lower income compared with those who immigrated 30 years ago - More likely to be victims of crime - Indigenous Canadians more likely living in poverty, suffer abuse Branches of Social Structure Theory Social structure theory: focus on the effects of class stratification in society 1. Social disorganization theory - Focus is on neighbourhoods marked by culture conflict, lack of cohesiveness, transiency, and anomie 2. Strain theory - Focus is on the conflict caused by barriers in reaching goals through legitimate means

3. Cultural deviance theory - Criminal behaviour is in conformity to lower-class subcultural values Social Disorganization Theory Characteristics - Transient population (high turnover) - Mixed-use neighbourhood (e.g., residential and commercial side-by-side) - Lack essential services - High unemployment, single-parent families, dependence on social assistance, substandard housing The Social Ecology School Community Deterioration: - Disorder, poverty, alienation, fear of crime. “Broken Window” - Abandoned, run-down buildings attract crime. Strain Theory - Crime is the lower-class response to anger and frustration. Based on Durkheims concept of “anomie” - Normlessness results from rapid social change. - Peoples wants are unrestrained Robert Merton’s Theory of Anomie Anomie - Conflict or disparity between the culturally specified goals and the culturally available means to achieve the goals. - Goals are universal but access to the means is stratified. - Lower class experiences strain between goals and means (likely to choose illegitimate means. Cultural Deviance Theory - Combines social disorganization and strain - People in deteriorated areas react to isolation and deprivation - Locates the response to strain in the different social classes Focal Concerns of Lower Class Culture Focal Concerns: Walter Miller (1958) Lower-class culture has a unique value system based on focal concerns. 1. Trouble 2. Toughness 3. Smartness 4. Excitement 5. Fate 6. Autonomy

Elijah Anderson: main concern is “respect,” hard to win but easy to lose...