Sep 1: Read The Stick Up Kids reading by sociologist Dr. Randol Contreras ?(click the link below) Contreras_Stickup Kids.pdf Step 2: Read ‘The Truly Disadvantaged’ reading by
Requirement: 200 words
Sep 1: Read The Stick Up Kids reading by sociologist Dr. Randol Contreras (click the link below)
Step 2: Read "The Truly Disadvantaged" reading by sociologist William Julius Wilson in chapter 6 of your textbook
Step 3: Click the link below to visit the "Inequality is real" simulation. Explore some of the options and outcomes based on your selections. Include your views on the experience with the simulation and how you think it applicable to Social Structure Theory.
Step 4: Click the link below to visit the "playspent.org" simulation. Explore some of the options and outcomes based on your selections. Include your views on the experience with the simulation in this week's discussion and how it applicable to Social Structure Therory.
Step 5. Considering the major principles of social structure theory respond to the following questions.
Q1. Is income inequality the key to understanding the racialized nature of crime rates? Explain your answer? (Use at least two examples from the article, text readings, and video clips")
- If you answered yes to Q1 do you think this is a social justice issue? How can it be mitigated and eradicated?
- If you answered no to Q1, what factor(s) do you think explain the racialized nature of crime rates?
Q2. Which sociological explanation (theory) of crime and delinquency, covered in chapter 6, helps you understand the trajectory of the stick-up kids? (Be sure to use examples from the reading and the simulation activities)
Q3. How do the social conditions, like those illustrated in the "Covid-19 Conviction Crisis" video clip from this week, perpetuate and maintain the social structural elements of crime? (use examples from the video)
Chapter Six
Social Structure Theory
Learning Objectives
After reading this chapter, students should be able to:
1. Explain the association between social structure and crime.
2. Identify the elements of social disorganization theory.
3. Analyze the views of Shaw and McKay.
4. Understand the various elements of ecological theory.
5. Apply the concept of strain.
6. List and compare the elements of cultural deviance theory.
Lesson Plan
I. Economic Structure and American Society
Learning Objective 1: Explain the association between social structure and crime.
A. Problems of the lower class.
1. Lewis argued that the lifestyle of lower-class areas produces a “culture of that is passed from one generation to the next.”
2. Myrdal described a worldwide underclass that was cut off from society.
3. Lower-class areas have bad housing and healthcare, disrupted family lives, underemployment, and despair.
4. Lower-class people have higher levels of depression, lower levels of achievement motivation, and focus on short-term goals.
B. Child poverty.
1. Poor children are less likely to achieve in school and are more likely to drop out.
2. Poor children are more likely to suffer from health problems.
C. Minority group poverty.
1. Burden of underclass felt most acutely by minority group members.
2. Median family income of Latinos and African Americans is two-thirds of whites.
3. Percentage of racial and ethnic minorities living in poverty is double that of European Americans.
D. Social structure and crime.
1. Social structure theory holds root cause of crime can be traced directly to socioeconomic disadvantages embedded in American society.
2. As neighborhood quality decreases, probability residents will develop problems sharply increases.
3. If people cannot afford goods and services, members of lower class may turn to illegal solutions.
II. Social Structure Theories
A. View cause of crime through lens of poverty, income inequality, hopelessness, and despair.
B. Three independent yet overlapping branches.
1. Social disorganization theory.
a. Crime flourishes in disorganized area in which institutions of social control have broken down and can no longer perform their stated functions.
2. Strain theory.
a. Crime occurs when members of the lower class experience anger and frustration over inability to achieve success.
3. Cultural deviance theory.
a. Combines elements of strain and social disorganization theory.
b. In disorganized neighborhoods, strain locks people into independent subculture with unique values and beliefs.
III. Social Disorganization Theory
2: Identify the elements of social disorganization theory.
3: Analyze the views of Shaw and McKay.
4: Understand the various elements of ecological theory.
A. The work of Shaw and McKay.
1. Began examining Chicago neighborhoods in the 1920s.
2. Concentric zones were transitional inner-city zone where large number of city’s poorest citizens had settled.
a. Crime declines the further from the city center you go.
b. Stable patterns of crime have existed over the past 65 years showing that crime does not move with people.
c. Youths adopt deviant lifestyle from most financially successful people in neighborhood, often gamblers, pimps, and drug dealers.
3. The legacy of Shaw and McKay.
a. Crime is a constant fixture in areas of poverty.
b. Neighborhood disintegration is the primary cause of criminal behavior.
c. Paved way for community action and development programs that have been developed in the last half-century
B. The social ecology school.
1. Similar to structural theory with less emphasis on value conflict.
2. Community disorder – crimes rates are associated with community deterioration in the form of disorder, poverty, alienation, disassociation, and fear of crime.
3. Community fear decreases the quality of life for residents.
a. People living in areas with high crime rates are most likely to experience fear.
b. Victims have higher levels of fear.
4. Siege mentality is when residents in poorer areas begin to become suspicious of authority and outsiders which furthers mistrust/fear.
5. Community change.
a. Poor communities with community stability have low crime rates.
6. Poverty concentration.
a. Concentration effect – most disadvantaged population is consolidated in most disorganized urban neighborhoods.
7. Collective efficacy – mutual trust, willingness to intervene in supervision of children, and maintenance of public order.
a. Informal social control involves on primary level and involves peers, families, and relatives.
b. Institutional social controls such as schools and churches can’t work effectively in a climate of alienation and mistrust.
c. Public social control draws on outside help, such as police, and are better able to reduce the effects of disorganization and lower crime.
8. The effects of collective efficacy.
a. Where collective efficacy is high, crime rates remain low.
b. Street efficacy.
IV. Strain Theories
5: Apply the concept of strain.
A. Theory of anomie.
1. The intersection of culturally defined goals (e.g., wealth) and socially approved means (e.g., education and legitimate work) for obtaining them produce anomic conditions.
a. Poor have less access to legitimate means to obtain goals and thus turn to crime to relieve their frustration.
2. Social adaptations:
a. Conformity: People accept the goals and have the means to acquire them.
b. Innovation: People accept the goals but are unable/unwilling to achieve them legitimately.
c. Ritualism: Pleasure from practicing traditional ceremonies, regardless of whether they have a real purpose
d. Retreatism: rejects both the goals and means of society
e. Rebellion: substitute alternative set of goals and means for conventional ones.
3. Evaluation of anomie theory.
a. Weaknesses include an inability to understand why a person chooses to commit certain types of crime over others, and it does not explain why people age out of crime.
B. Institutional anomie theory.
1. Messner and Rosenfeld argue that the goal and process of achieving the “American Dream” is problematic as it leads to crime among all social classes.
2. Social institutions are undermined in three ways.
a. Noneconomic functions and roles have been devalued.
b. Noneconomic roles become subordinate to and must accommodate economic roles.
c. Economic language, standards, and norms penetrate noneconomic realms.
C. Relative deprivation theory.
1. Neighborhood-level income inequality is predictor of neighborhood crime rates
2. Relative deprivation – envy, mistrust, and aggression resulting from perceptions of economic and social inequality.
3. Relative deprivation is the precursor to a high crime rate.
D. General strain theory (GST).
1. Robert Agnew’s theory explains why individuals who feel stress and strain are likely to commit crimes.
2. Applies to all elements of society, not just crime among the lower socioeconomic classes.
3. Multiple sources of strain – negative affective states.
a. Failure to achieve positively valued goals.
b. Disjunction of expectations and achievements.
c. Removal of positively valued stimuli.
d. Presentation of negative stimuli.
4. Consequences of strain.
5. Coping with strain.
6. Evaluating GST
V. Cultural Deviance Theory
Learning Objective 6: List and compare the elements of cultural deviance theory.
A. Focal concerns.
1. Miller identified unique conduct norms – focal concerns.
1. Trouble.
2. Toughness.
3. Smartness.
4. Excitement.
5. Fate.
6. Autonomy.
2. Cultural transmission.
3. Gang culture.
B. Theory of delinquent subcultures.
1. Cohen argued that lower-class youth delinquency is actually a protest against the norms and values of middle-class U.S. culture.
2. Status frustration leads to youths joining gangs.
3. Middle-class measuring rods.
4. Formation of deviant subcultures.
a. The corner boy is loyal to his peer group and is occasionally delinquent.
b. The college boy embraces cultural and social values of the middle class.
c. The delinquent boy is the most delinquent and adopts values that oppose middle-class values.
C. Theory of differential opportunity.
1. Cloward and Ohlin combined strain and social disorganization principles to portray a gang-sustaining subculture.
2. Differential opportunity holds that youths who are denied the legitimate means to achieve goals will come together to form gangs that provide emotional support.
3. Three types of gangs:
a. Criminal gangs exist in stable neighborhoods and youths are recruited into established criminal gangs.
b. Conflict gangs are created in areas where legitimate or illegitimate opportunities are not available and the focus is on fighting.
c. Retreatist gangs are considered double-failures and are unable to get success through legitimate or illegitimate means.
VI. Social Structure Theory and Public Policy
A. Social structure theory has significantly influenced public policy.
1. Provide public financial aid to help lower-class make ends meet.
2. Improve neighborhood characteristics so they are not disorganized.
3. Implement social service programs, like Head Start.
4. Engage existing community institutions, such as police and schools, to help kids access legitimate growth opportunities.
,
Criminological Theory Summaries
Theory Main Points Theorists/Researchers Classical School (Deterrence) (Rational Choice)
Crime occurs when the benefits outweigh the costs, when people pursue self-interest in the absence of effective punishments. Crime is a free-willed choice. See also deterrence, rational choice.
Beccaria Bentham
Positivist -Biological -Psychological -Social
Crime is caused or determined. Lombroso placed more emphasis on biological deficiencies, whereas later scholars would emphasize psychological and sociological factors. Use science to determine the factors associated with crime.
Lombroso (B) Freud (P) Guerry (S) Quetelet (S)
Individual Trait Biosocial
Criminals differ from noncriminals on a number of biological and psychological traits. These traits cause crime in interaction with the social environment.
Glueck & Glueck (I) Lombroso (B)
Social Disorganization Disorganized communities cause crime because informal social controls break down and criminal cultures emerge. They lack collective efficacy to fight crime and disorder.
Park & Burgess Shaw & McKay Sampson & Groves
Differential Association Social Learning
Crime is learned through associations with criminal definitions. These definitions might be generally approving of criminal conduct or be neutralizations that justify crime only under certain circumstances. Interacting with antisocial peers is a major cause of crime. Criminal behavior will be repeated and become chronic if reinforced. When criminal subcultures exist, then many individuals can learn to commit crime in one location and crime rates— including violence—may become very high.
Sutherland & Cressey Akers & Burgess Sykes & Matza
Anomie Institutional-Anomie
The gap between the American Dream’s goal of economic success and the opportunity to obtain this goal creates structural strain. Norms weaken and ‘anomie’ ensues, thus creating high crime rates. When other social institutions (such as the family) are weak to begin with or also weakened by the American Dream, the economic institution is dominant. When such an institutional imbalance exists— as in the United States—then crime rates are very high.
Merton
Strain General Strain
When individuals cannot obtain success goals (money, status in school), they experience strain or pressure. Under certain conditions, they are likely to respond to this strain through crime. The strains leading to crime, however, may not only be linked to goal blockage (or deprivation of valued stimuli) but also to the presentation of noxious stimuli and the taking away of valued stimuli. Crime is a more likely response to strain when it results in negative affect (anger and frustration).
Cohen Agnew
Social Control -Informal -Formal
Asks the question, “Why don’t people commit crime?” They assume that criminal motivation is widespread. They key factor in crime causation is thus the presence or absence of control. These controls or containment might be rooted in relationships (e.g., social bonds) or be internal (e.g., self-control). Exposure to control also might differ by social location and by the historical period, such as the
Reckless Sykes & Matza Hirschi Gottfredson
changing level and type of control given to males and females.
Rational Choice Deterrence
Building on classical theory, crime is seen as a choice that is influenced by its costs and benefits—that is, by its “rationality.” Crime will be more likely to be deterred if its costs are raised (e.g., more effort required, more punishment applied), especially if the costs are certain and immediate. Information about the costs and benefits of crime can be obtained by direct experiences with punishment and punishment avoidance, and indirectly by observing whether others who offend are punished or avoid punishment.
Cornish & Clarke Bentham
Routine Activities Crime occurs when there is an intersection in time and space of a motivated offender, an attractive target, and a lack of capable guardianship. People’s daily routine activities affect the likelihood they will be an attractive target who encounters an offender in a situation where no effective guardianship is present. Changes in routine activities in society (e.g., women working) can affect crime rates.
Cohen & Felson
Labeling Stigma
People become stabilized in criminal roles when they are labeled as criminal, are stigmatized, develop criminal identities, are sent to prison, and are excluded from conventional roles. Reintegrative responses are less likely to create defiance and a commitment to crime.
Mead Lemert Becker Goffman Falk
Conflict Inequality in power and material well-being create conditions that lead to street crime and corporate crime. Capitalism and its market economy are especially criminogenic because they create vast inequality that impoverishes many and provides opportunities for exploitation for the powerful.
Marx
Feminism Crime cannot be understood without considering gender. Crime is shaped by the different social experiences of and power is exercised by men and women. Patriarchy is a broad structure that shapes gender-related experiences and power. Men may use crime to exert control over women and to demonstrate masculinity—that is, to show that they are “men” in a way consistent with societal ideals of masculinity.
Integrated These theories use components from other theories— usually strain, control, and social learning—to create a new theory that explains crime. They often are life-course theories, arguing that causes of crime occur in a sequence across time.
,
CRIMINOLOGY THE CORE Seventh Edition
Chapter 6 Social Structure
Theory
© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Economic Structure, Part 1
• Stratified Society – People grouped according to economic or social class – Unequal distribution of wealth, power, and prestige
• Social Class – Segment of population whose members share similar
economic level, attitudes, values, norms, and identifiable lifestyle
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Economic Structure, Part 2
• Problems of the Lower Class – Culture of poverty – Underclass
• Child Poverty – Less likely to achieve in school – More likely to drop out – More likely to suffer from health problems
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Economic Structure, Part 3
• Minority Group Poverty – White privilege benefits Caucasians over non-white
people – Black Lives Matter (BLM) aims to reduce institutional
violence and perceived systemic racism toward black people
• Social Structure and Crime – Social structure theory – Views disadvantaged economic class position as a
primary cause of crime
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Social Structure Theories
• The social structure perspective encompasses three independent yet overlapping branches – Social Disorganization Theory
§ Institutions of social control have broken down – Strain Theory
§ Strain – Cultural Deviance Theory
§ Subculture
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Social Disorganization Theory, Part 1
• Links crime rates to neighborhood ecological characteristics – Crime rates are highest in transient, mixed-use, and
changing neighborhoods where fabric of social life has become frayed
– Residents in crime-ridden neighborhoods flee at earliest opportunity
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Social Disorganization Theory, Part 2
• The Work of Shaw and McKay – Transitional neighborhoods
§ Area undergoing shift in population and structure – Concentric zones – What is the legacy of Shaw and McKay?
© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
The Work of Shaw and McKay
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Social Disorganization Theory, Part 3
• The Social Ecology School – Community disorder – Community fear – Siege mentality – Community change – Poverty concentration
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Social Disorganization Theory, Part 4
• Collective Efficacy – Mutual trust – Intervene in supervision of children – Maintenance of public order
• Forms of Control – Informal social control – Institutional social control – Public social control
• What are the effects of collective efficacy?
© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Social Disorganization Theory, Part 5
Theory Major Premise Strengths Research Focus
Shaw and McKay’s concentric zones theory
Crime is a product of transitional neighborhoods that manifest social disorganization and value conflict.
Identifies why crime rates are highest in slum areas. Points out the factors that produce crime. Suggests programs to help reduce crime.
Poverty; disorganization.
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.
Social control; fear; collective efficacy; unemployment.
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Strain Theories, Part 1
• Crime viewed as a direct result of frustration and anger among lower socioeconomic classes
• Theory of Anomie – Social adaptations
§ Conformity § Innovation § Ritualism § Retreatism § Rebellion
– Evaluation of anomie theory § Social inequality leads to perceptions of anomie
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Strain Theories, Part 2
• Institutional Anomie Theory – American dream
§ Goal § Process
• Relative Deprivation Theory – Envy, mistrust, and aggression resulting from perceptions
of economic and social inequality
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Strain Theories, Part 3
• General Strain Theory (GST) – Negative affective states
• Multiple sources of strain – Failure to achieve positively valued goals – Disjunction of expectations and achievements – Removal of positively valued stimuli – Presentation of negative stimuli
• Consequences of strain • Coping with strain • Evaluating GST
© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
General Strain Theory
© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Strain Theories, Part 4
Concept Summary 6.2 Strain
Theory Major Promise Strengths Research Focus
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 condition, and not personality, can account for crime. Explains high lower-class crime rates.
Frustration; anomie:; effects of failure to achieve goals.
Institutional anomie theory
Material goods pervade all aspects of American life.
Explains why crime rates are so high in American culture.
Frustration; effects of materialism.
Relative deprivation theory
Crime occurs when the wealthy and the poor live close to one another.
Explains high crime rate in deteriorated inner-city areas located near more affluent neighborhoods.
Relative deprivation.
General strain theory
Strain has a variety of sources. Strain 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.
Strain; inequality; negative affective states; influence of negative and positive stimuli.
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Cultural Deviance Theory, Part 1
• Combines effects of social disorganization and strain – Members of the lower socioeconomic class create an
independent subculture with its own set of rules and values
– Subcultural norms often clash with conventional values
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Cultural Deviance Theory, Part 2
• Focal Concerns – Promotes illegal or violent behavior – Toughness – Street smarts – Excitement
• Cultural Transmission • Gang Culture
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Cultural Deviance Theory, Part 3
• Theory of Delinquent Subculture • Delinquent Boys by Albert Cohen • Status frustration • Middle-class measuring rods • Formation of deviant subcultures
– Reaction formation
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Cultural Deviance Theory, Part 4
• Theory of Differential Opportunity – Criminal gangs – Conflict gangs – Retreatist gangs
© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Cultural Deviance Theory, Part 5 Concept Summary 6.3 Cultural Deviance Theories
Theory Major Promise Strengths Research Focus
Miller’s 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.
Cultural norms;focal concerns.
Cohen’s theory of delinquent subculture
Status frustration of lower- class boys, created by their failure to achieve middle- class success, causesthem to join gangs.
Shows how the conditions of lower- class life produce crime. Explains violence and destructive acts. Identifies conflict of lower class with middle class.
Gangs; cccculture conflict; middle- class measuring rods; reaction formation.
Cloward and ohlin’s theory of opportunity
Blockage of conventional opportunities causes lower- class youths to join criminal, conflict, or retreatest 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.
Gangs; cultural norms; culture conflict; effects of blocked opportunity.
0© 2019 Cengage. All Rights Reserved.
Social Structure Theory and Public Policy
• Public assistance or welfare • Improving community structure in inner-city high-cri
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