CRIME

DEVIANCE&

Ecological

• The official crime statistics (OCS) show that recorded crime is not evenly distributed between geographical areas.

• It is higher in urban areas than rural, and higher in inner cities and on council estates.

• The British Crime Survey (BCS) data suggests that people who live in less rural areas worry less about crime than city dwellers.

The Chicago School

• In the 1920s the Chicago School of sociologists looked at the relationship between criminality and the urban environment.

• Shaw and McKay, and Park went out on to the streets to investigate and discovered neighbourhoods had their own distinct subcultural values and lifestyles.

Zone of Transition

• They discovered that areas with high turnovers of people in and out prevented the building of stable communities and a sense of social control.

• Instead a state of social disorganization, with little sense of community develops and people felt little guilt about committing crimes against their neighbours.

• Influenced by Durkheim’s theory of anomie.

Subcultures of Delinquency

• Shaw and McKay noted that areas of social disorganisation produce delinquent subcultures which transmit values from one generation to the next.

• Marshall et al suggest that zones of transition made up of sink estates can be spotted in UK cities and they lack any sense of social control. People feel free to commit crime at will and no progress is made in these areas.

Criticisms of Ecological

• Shaw and McKay’s analysis is tautological, i.e. it is not clear which comes first: the crime or the social disorganisation.

• Evidence for inner-city crime comes from the OCS which are socially constructed and may tell sociologists more about policing than crime.

• Majority living in such areas choose not to commit crime.