1. IQ and Crime
Empirical evidence: IQ weakly but consistently related to crime (8-10 pt difference)
Detection hypothesis?
Class or race bias in testing?
Two types of bias
True direct effect (Bell Curve)
True indirect effect (Hirschi and Hindelang)

2. Sociological Explanations of Crime
Focus on how social structure and culture may cause crime
Social Disorganization
Anomie (strain)
Social Control
Social Learning
Conflict theory
Labeling theory

3. Emphasis on “ecology of crime” Social Disorganization Theory
The Chicago School
Emphasis on “ecology of crime”
Social Disorganization Theory

4. Chicago School University of Chicago Social Context
Department of Sociology (but others also)
Social Context
Chicago as a microcosm of change in America
Upton Sinclair, The Jungle.
“Individual” (especially biological) explanations of crime seemed foolish

5. Earnest Burgess (1925) How does a city growth and develop?
Concentric Zones in Chicago
Industrial zone
Zone in transition
Residential zones

6. Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay
Juvenile Delinquency in Urban Areas 1942.
Mapped addresses of delinquents (court records)
Zone in transition stable and high delinquency rates
Implications of these findings:
1. Stable, despite multiple waves of immigrants!!
2. Only certain areas of the city Something about
this area causes delinquency

7. Social Disorganization
What were the characteristics of the zone in transition that may cause high delinquency rates?
Population Heterogeneity
Population Turnover
Physical Decay
Poverty/Inequality
Why might these ecological characteristics lead to high crime rates?

8. Explaining high crime in the zone of transition
1. Social Control
Little community “cohesion,” therefore, weak community institutions and lack of control
2. Cultural Transmission of Values
Once crime rooted in a neighborhood, delinquent values are passed trough generations of delinquents

9. Social Disorganization 1960-1980
Fell out of favor in sociology in 1950s
Individual theories gained popularity
Criticisms of Social Disorganization
Are these neighborhoods really “disorganized?”
Cannot measure “intervening variables”
Cannot get neighborhood level measures
“Chicago Specific” (not all cities grow in rings)

10. Modern S.D. Theory Addressing criticism
Interest rekindled in the 1980s
continues today with “ecological studies”
reborn as a pure social control theory (left behind “transmission of values)
Addressing criticism
“Concentric rings” not necessary, it is simply a neighborhood level theory
Ecological characteristics do affect a neighborhoods level of informal control

11. Sampson and Groves (1989) Brittish Crime Survey Data (BCS)
Ecological characteristics social control
Population turnover Street supervision
Poverty / inequality Friendship networks
Divorce rates Participation in
Single parents neighborhood organizations

12. Sampson (1997) Replicated results in Chicago
Areas with “concentrated disadvantage,” (poverty, race, age composition, family disruption) lack “collective efficacy”
Willingness to exercise control (tell kids to quiet down)
Willingness to trust or help each other
Lack of collective efficacy increases crime rates

13. Review of Social Disorganization
Macro (Neighborhood) level theory
Explains why certain neighborhoods have high crime rates
Ecological Social Crime
Characteristics Control Rates
NOT an individual level theory
Avoid “Ecological Fallacy”

14. Policy Implications? Build neighborhood “collective efficacy”
How do you do this?
Chicago Area Project (CAP)
Address ecological characteristics that ruin collective efficacy
Family disruption, concentrated poverty, residential mobility

15. Other “ecological factors” related to neighborhood crime rates
Community Fear
Community Change (why does this happen?)
Siege Mentality
Lack of Social Support/Social Altruism

16. Back to the “cultural” explanation
Concentrated Poverty
William Julius Wilson
The “Truly Disadvantaged”
Cultural Isolation
Lack of contact with individuals or institution that represent mainstream society
Little respect for life (gonna die young anyhow)
Pressure to react to “disrespect” violently