Social Disorganization and Ecological Criminology

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Social Disorganization and Ecological Criminology

• Dan Ellingworth
• Friday, 13 November 2020

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Lecture Outline

• Durkheim and Anomie
• The Chicago School
• Robert Park
• Shaw and Mackays Concentric Zones
• Social Disorganization
• Environmental Criminology
• Routine activities theory
• Crime Mapping
• Community crime careers
• Community Crime Prevention

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Durkheim and Anomie

• Central concern how does society maintain
  itself, whilst undergoing major social upheaval
• Mechanical Solidarity ? Organic Solidarity
• Underdeveloped conscience collective resulting in
  normlessness or Anomie
• Crime and deviance results from a temporary lack
  of norms and values

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Social Disorganization Theory / Ecological /
Environmental Criminology

• Area crime / offending rates
• Influences of community characteristics on crime
• Land use and routine activities
• Importance of Informal Social Control

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Chicago School

• Established 1892
• Aim to establish sociology as an organized,
  empirical discipline
• Robert Park anthropological and ecological study
  of crime
• Chicago an evolving city, characterised by waves
  of immigration from Europe aim was to understand
  this process

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E.W. BurgessConcentric Circles
I - The Loop II- Zone of Transition III - Zone of
workingmens homes IV- Residential Zone V -
Commuters Zone
I
II
III
IV
V
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Chicago School 1940s

• Shaw and Mackay social disorganisation
• juvenile delinquency residence rates, and other
  social problems, concentrated in the zone of
  transition
• Patterns stable over time despite change
• Cultural heterogeneity constant turnover of
  population inhibit maintenance of social order

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Criticisms of Chicago School

• Crime the product of social organisation, not
  disorganisation
• Delinquency seen as the product and result of
  disorganisation
• Social disorganisation ignores differential power
  levels, and the role of economic factors

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Legacy of Chicago School

• Crime can be effected by the broader policies
  shaping the urban city
• Measures against crime should seek to socialise
  and integrate (especially youth)
• The geography of crime
• Most effective resource for crime prevention is
  to be found in the ordinary members of the
  population natural surveillance in communities

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Crime Mapping

• Technologically driven GIS mapping
• Identification of offenders and offending
• Hotspot analysis a recognition that crime
  incidents are clustered in small areas

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Wilson and Kelling

• Broken Windows Thesis

Disorder
Fear of Crime
Informal control undermined
Potential increase in serious crime
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Disorder and Fear of Crime

• Innovative focus on disorder and fear within
  areas
• Disorder Signals of a breakdown in the
  realisation of conventional norms about public
  behaviour, and a diminished capacity for problem
  solving
• Fear of Crime withdrawal from community, as well
  as secondary victimisation

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Spiral of decline

• Evidence that the pattern of decline is most
  marked in working class communities where
  residents are more sensitive to such barometers
  of decline
• Tipping points communities gain reputations
  for tolerance of social disorder
• Psychological / behavioural consequences
  fatalism and mutual distrust

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Defensible Space Oscar Newman

• Territoriality zones of influence
• Surveillance design buildings to allow easy
  observation of areas
• Image design buildings to avoid stigma in
  low-cost / public housing
• Environment the juxtaposition of public housing
  with safe zones
• a neglect of social factors?

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Routine Activities Approach

• Marcus Felson
• A crime event occurs when 3 things coincide in
  time and space
• a motivated offender
• a suitable victim / target
• the absence of capable guardianship
• Social Disorder can inhibit capable guardianship

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Primary Crime Prevention

• Primary Crime Prevention
• reduction of crime without reference to criminals
  and potential criminals
• leading role played by the police
• A.K.A. Situational crime prevention
• Increasing the effort required for crime
• Increasing the risks of detection
• Reducing the reward of crime

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Secure by Design
See and Be Seen Bus Shelters
Big Issue Offices, Manchester
Royds Community Association, Bradford
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Social Capital

• Individuals have resources associated with
  inter-connections Social Capital
• Communities benefit when social capital is high
• Collective efficacy the ability of groups to
  respond and resist
• Putnam social capital is in decline
• Communitarians (eg. Amitai Etzioni) a need to
  reinvigorate the social / community in the face
  of unfettered individualism

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Summary

• Ecological approach of Chicago School looked at
  social disorganization (akin to Durkheims
  anomie)
• Functionalist both theories saw
• norms / values / culture / ecology
• as the key to social order
• Contemporary approaches have borrowed this, and
  applied it to a community based approach to
  offending and crime prevention