Unit 6
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Any questions?
What is due?
Important Announcements
Overview of Unit 6
Chapter Six:
Social Structure Theory:
Because They’re Poor
Economics and Crime
• Social structure theorists suggest that social and
economic forces operating in deteriorated lower
class areas push many of their residents into
criminal behavior patterns
• A disadvantaged economic class position is a
primary cause of crime
Social Structure Theories
• Social disorganization theory
• Strain theory
• Cultural deviance theory
Social Disorganization Theory
• Branch of social structure theory that focuses on
the breakdown of institutions such as the family,
school, and employment in inner-city
neighborhoods
• Types of social disorganization theory:
• Shaw and McKay’s concentric zones theory
• Social ecology theory
Concentric Zones Theory
• Crime is a product of transitional neighborhoods
that manifest social disorganization and value
conflict
• Identifies why crime rates are highest in innercity areas
• Points out the factors that produce crime
• Suggests programs to help reduce crime
Social Ecology Theory
• The conflicts and problems of urban social life
and communities, including fear, unemployment,
deterioration, and siege mentality, influence
crime rates
• Accounts for urban crime rates and trends
• Concentration effect ~ as working and
middle-class families flee inner-city poverty
areas, the most disadvantaged population is
consolidated in urban ghettos
• Collective efficacy ~ social control exerted
by cohesive communities, based on mutual
trust; social control may be informal,
institutional, or public
Strain Theory
• Branch of social structure theory that sees crime
as a function of the conflict between people’s
goals and the means available to obtain these
goals
• Types of strain theory include:
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anomie theory
institutional anomie theory
relative deprivation theory
general strain theory
Anomie Theory
• People who adopt the goals of society but lack
the means to attain them seek alternatives such
as crime
• Points out how competition for success creates
conflict and crime
• Suggests that social conditions, not personality,
can account for crime
• Explains high lower class crime rates
Variety of Social Adaptations
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conformity
innovation
ritualism
retreatism
rebellion
Institutional Anomie Theory
• Material goods pervade all aspects of American
life
• Explains why crime rates are so high in
American culture
How Social Institutions are Undermined
• Non-economic functions and roles have been
devalued
• During conflict, non-economic roles become
subordinate and accommodate economic roles
• Economic language, standards, and norms
penetrate non-economic realms
Relative Deprivation Theory
• Crime occurs when the wealthy and poor live
close to one another
• Explains high crime rates in deteriorated innercity areas located near more affluent
neighborhoods
General Strain Theory
• Strain has a variety of sources and causes crime
in the absence of adequate coping mechanisms
• Identifies the complexities of strain in modern
society
• Expands on anomie theory
• Shows the influence of social events on behavior
over the life course
• Explains middle-class crimes
Sources of Strain
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Failure to achieve positively valued goals
Disjunction of expectations and achievements
Removal of positively valued stimuli
Presentation of negative stimuli
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
• Types of cultural deviance theory:
• Focal concern theory
• Theory of delinquent subcultures
• Theory of opportunity
Focal Concern Theory
• Citizens who obey the street rules of lower class
life (focal concerns) find themselves in conflict
with the dominant culture
• Identifies the core values of lower class culture
and shows their association to crime
Millers’ Lower Class Focal Concerns
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Trouble
Toughness
Smartness
Excitement
Fate
Autonomy
Theory of Delinquent Subcultures
• Status frustration of lower class boys, created by
their failure to achieve middle-class success,
causes them to engage in delinquency
• Shows how the conditions of lower class life
produce crime
• Identifies conflict of lower class with the middle
class
Theory of Opportunity
• Blockage of conventional opportunities causes
lower class youths to join criminal, conflict, or
retreatist gangs
• Shows that even illegal opportunities are
structured in society
• Indicates why people become involved in a
particular type of criminal activity
• Presents a way of preventing crime
Social Structure Theories and
Public Policy
• Crime rates decrease when families receive
supplemental income through public assistance
programs
• Crime reduction through the improvement of
community structure