Crime & Deviance Race & Ethnicity

 Three Waves of Migration (1930s-40s) ◦ “Classical”  Rural to Urban ◦ From Europe (especially Eastern Europe) ◦ “Classical,” part II  Rural Black Farmers

 Added Importance to: ◦ Race  A social category based upon some inherited, biological characteristic ◦ Ethnicity  A social category based upon some cultural trait or characteristic

 Contributes to: ◦ Stereotypes:  simplified, rigid mental images of what members of certain groups are like ◦ Discrimination:  the unequal treatment of certain people on the basis of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender

 “Ecology” of the city ◦ Process of invasion & settlement of a territory  Concentric Zones ◦ Zone 1: Central Business District ◦ Newcomers: settle in Zone 2 (the zone in transition)  “Natural Areas”

 Assimilation: ◦ "a process of cooperation in which one ethnic group loses its identity" ◦ Differences between 1 st and 2 nd Generation Immigrants

 Louis Wirth, “Urbanism as a Way of Life” ◦ The city as a troubled place ◦ Especially Zone 2  The zone in transition ◦ Crime, mental illness, alcoholism, drug addiction, etc. ◦ Crude crime rate (#crimes/1000)  Always highest in zone 2

 Biological & Psychological Attempts to Explain ◦ Inherited inferiorities/abnormalities  Physique  Phrenology  XYY ◦ Minority of Cases

 Correlation ◦ “X” and “Y” are always found together in time and space  Temporality ◦ “X” always precedes “Y”  Intervening Variables? ◦ “X”  “Z”  “Y”

 Not biological, not psychological  Time in zone in transition = 4-7 years ◦ Over time, population turns over ◦ But crime & deviance rates consistently highest in zone 2  Social Disorganization (Wirth et al.) ◦ Not individuals; not biology, not psychology

 Thorstein Sellin: cultural conflict  Frederick Thrasher: gang activity  Daniel Bell: “Crime as an American Way of Life”

 Edwin Sutherland ◦ Differential Association  Gresham Sykes & David Matza ◦ Techniques of Neutralization  Robert Merton ◦ Anomie ◦ Deviance and Opportunity Structures

Culturally Approved Goals Legit Instit. MeansConformity++ Innovation+- Ritualism-+ Retreatism-- Rebellion+/-+/-

 Universal, so necessary ◦ Society of monks  Boundary Maintenance  Group Solidarity  Innovation  Tension Reduction

 Howard Becker & Edwin Lemert ◦ Not the act, but the societal reaction ◦ Secondary deviance (Lemert) ◦ Deviance varies across:  Time  Situation  Culture & Society