Cities and Social Pathology

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Cities and Social Pathology

• Monday March 26, 2008
• Soc 205Y Urban Sociology

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Today

• You Should have read
• Ron Gillis chapter 9 Cities and Social
  Pathology
• Objectives
• to appreciate the reality of rural life and how
  populations were civilized through urbanization
• to understand the nature of the relationship
  between population density and social pathology
• to know how the size of urban populations is
  related to specialization in goods and services
• to grasp why Canadian and US patterns of
  suburbanization have been so different
• to see where and why deviance service centers
  originate
• To realize why we expect the relationship between
  city size and rates of homicide (or urbanization
  and social pathology) tend to be U-shaped.

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Image of the city

• Until recently, rural areas were high in mayhem,
  while towns and cities, with their greater
  intensity of local and state control were
  relatively safe.
• Today, rates of pathological behavior and
  conditions will be most prevalent in rural
  regions and in particular sections of the largest
  cities. Rates will be lowest in mid-sized cities,
  where the presence of state control is more
  widespread and complete only exception city in
  Canada is Toronto

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History Urbanization and Crime

• Media has created a culture of fear (i.e.
  stereotype of large cities having more violence
  and murders than smaller towns)
• to properly make this argument though, one needs
  to examine crime RATES instead of NUMBER of
  cases, or worst, dramatic incidents shown on TV.
• Except for in the last 50-60 years, serious crime
  has been in decline in the West since the Middle
  Ages (historically, urbanization was over all a
  negative predictor of illegal activities started
  in Europe with the Renaissance and
  re-urbanization)

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History Urbanization and Crime

• Despite the image of Christianity expanding
  throughout medieval Europeit was ineffective in
  deterring crime (e.g. evidence of mutilation,
  mortification of the flesh and repression of
  natural urges --gtfeelings of fatalism, personal
  instability and unpredictable outburst of
  violence).
• Later on, at MACRO level- patterns of social
  control (civility) evolved from direct coercion
  to more indirect, integrative control through the
  use of the economy, information systems, and the
  courts.
• Social capital Urbane self-control- became part
  of the cultural capital of the city, increasing
  the trustworthiness of the social environment
  (Coleman 1988)
• Until 1960s- negative association between
  urbanization and rates of serious crime continued
  (reversed in the US) why shift after 1960s?
  INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE (e.g. decline in
  institutional integration and control, argues
  Banfield 1990).

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Link between Population Density and Social
Pathology?

• Louis Wirth (1938) defined urban in terms of
  DENSITY, SIZE, and SOCIAL HETEROGENEITY (meaning
  diversity in lifestyle) of a locations
  population
• John Calhoun (1962) sought to apply lab rat
  experimental findings on the impact of population
  density on distress and abnormal behaviors, to
  humans
• first used term, SOCIAL PATHOLOGY (defn) a
  catch-all term for the behaviours in the
  high-density pens of his experiment on rats. The
  behaviors included infanticide, aggression and
  sexual assault, asexuality, careless mothering
  and apparent depression.
• Behavioral sink (defn) the growth of unusual
  behaviours (social pathologies) under conditions
  of high density in Calhouns experiment with rats
  
• What could be learned from Calhouns experiment?
  Implications?

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Link between Population Density and Social
Pathology? Calhouns Experiment
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City size and Deviant subcultures (living in big
cities compared to smaller ones)
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City size and Deviant subcultures (of living in
big cities compared to smaller ones)
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Deviance Service Centres

• (defn) an area specializing in providing illegal
  goods and services, adjacent to another area that
  openly regards them as disreputable
• These concentrations of disreputable activities
  often emerge in disorganized areas of the city
  where there are limited economic opportunities
  and a reduced presence of state control.
• They vary in SIZE (i.e. as large as national
  states such as in Thailand, large sex trade),
  political units within states (i.e. Nevada-
  legalized gambling, prostitution and quick
  divorces), metropolitan areas (i.e. Atlantic
  City) or small neighborhoods (Storyville in old
  New Orleans, or Africville (Halifax, squatter
  housing)), or even buildings (i.e. bootleggers
  in Canada)
• John Hagan (1994) points out, although a deviance
  service centre may generate income, it places the
  community on the moral as well as the physical
  periphery of the economic system
• POLITICAL DIFFERENCES also play a large part in
  defining the nature of urban life (Box 9.4) for
  example, some cities can be pro-prostitution (by
  allowing legal prostitution as part of service
  sector, authorities can keep restrictions/control
  on associated problems (i.e. STDs, offer
  protection to sex workers and their clients).

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Different Theories of Urban Pathology

• Civilization theory argues Lack of systems of
  control -gt Higher rates of serious crimes (i.e.
  rural areas and not cities)
• Modern urban theory higher the density and
  larger the populations of cities ?greater
  neighborhood disorganization, evidence of
  deviant subcultures, emergence of deviance
  service centres
• Disorganization theory decline in institutional
  integration and control? breakdown of moral order
  (primarily within most populous cities in
  specific sectors)
• Non-linear relationship theory (defn a
  statistically significant association where the
  best-fitting line of least squares is quadratic,
  cubic, or some other departure from linearity)
  certain rural regions and small towns may lack
  the population or resources necessary to maintain
  institutional support and control to curtail more
  spontaneous outburst and higher rates of
  passionate violence (207).

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Evidence Homicide Outcomes

• Table 9.1/9.2 in your book.
• evidence from 1994, 1995, 2001 and 2002
  Statistics Canada data show that the relationship
  between CMA population and homicide rate is
  NON-LINEAR (possible explanations contributing to
  institutional control, smaller proportion of
  young single males in mid-sized CMAs, or fewer
  pockets of poverty)
• also non-linear relationship in US data (yet
  Canada has much lower average of 2 homicides per
  100,000 between 1992-2001 while US has 5.6
  homicide rate in 2003)
• may find a different pattern in relationship if
  using other dependent variables (i.e. rates of
  violent assault or variation in quality of
  medical care)
• Exception Toronto (1.74 homicide rate!!!- Why
  does Toronto have lower homicide rate than other,
  smaller Canadian metropolitan areas (i.e.
  Montreal, Vancouver, and Edmonton)?
• may represent an interlude in or the end of turf
  war between the Hells Angels and the Rock
  Machine (bigger problem in Montreal)
• Perhaps due to selective migration, east-west
  cultural differences or presence of a larger
  number of homicide-susceptible subpopulations,
  such as aboriginal people, rates of homicide and
  other crimes increase going from east to West in
  Canada.

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Murder in Metros, Cities, and Suburbs

• US has three times higher rate of homicide
  (5.5/100,000) than Canada (1.8) in 2000.
• Difference in homicide rate between the CMAs of
  Canada and the US is even larger (yet, rates may
  differ since Canadas definition of CMAs include
  suburbs) (see Table 9.3)
• Why possible US-Canadian difference?

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Example Chicago vs. Toronto

• Factors to Discuss
• Cultural differences
• Ethno-racial concentration
• Ethnic neighbourhoods and residential segregation
• Suburbanization rates
• Political processes

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Conclusion

• Different patterns of suburbanization explain
  much of the difference in rates of homicide
  between US and Canada
• Other explanations include the difference in the
  structures of Canadian and American cities (US
  more laissez-faire, both socially and
  economically and less of a welfare state than
  Canada) ? these political cultural distinctions
  lead to different crime rate consequences
• Today, in Canada, rates of pathological
  behaviours and conditions will be most prevalent
  in rural regions and in particular sections of
  the largest cities. Rates will be lowest in
  mid-sized cities, where the presence of state
  control is more widespread and complete.

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Crime in Media

• Film
• Urban vs. non-urban
• Television
• Canadian vs. U.S. Police Procedurals
• Books
• News Coverage
• Race/ethnic bias
• Growth in coverage
• Perceptions vs. reality

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News Perceptions vs. Reality

• Conceptions of crime are distorted by exposure to
  media coverage.
• U.S. Even as violent crime rates shrink, news
  outlets unfairly focus on young Latino and black
  men who commit acts of violence (2001 study)
• Homicide coverage on network news increased 473
  from 1990 to 1998, while homicides decreased
  32.9 during that time, the report said. While
  homicides committed by youth declined by 68 from
  1993 to 1999, 62 of the public reported they
  believed youth crime was on the rise.
• black people too often are portrayed as
  perpetrators and are underrepresented as victims.
  
• if a suspect in a violent crime was black, the
  average article length was longer

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Cops
Gangs
Innocent bystanders
Drugs
Urban Crime Film Themes
Organized Crime
Bleak Futurism
Race/ethnic issues
Marginalized and Weirdoes
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Non-urban crime films Westerns Horror
flicks Foreign/Genocides Serial killers Family
Conflicts Good people gone bad Misunderstood hero
Rural-Urban crossovers Perhaps a sign that genre
is getting stale, some movies combine both worlds
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Urban Crime on our minds Television
Police procedurals
Canadian
American
Hill Street Blues Police (NYC)
Crossing Jordan (Boston) medical examiner
Forever Knight (Toronto) supernatural
police/Cop show
Due South (Chicago via Canada) Buddy Cop show
Da Vincis inquest (Toronto) medical examiner
Cold Squad (Toronto) Police investigators
CSI crime scenes (NY, Miami, Las Vegas)
Cold Case (Philly) Police investigators
Law and Order and the Shield Police and
Prosecutors (NY)
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Crime on our minds Books Games
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Source On Balance, Volume 10, Number 8, 1997 and
Volume 11, Number 2, 1998
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News Perceptions vs. Reality
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In 1997 The National Media Archive completed a
study comparing the local TV newscast reporting
of crime, accidents and natural disasters in
Canada and in the United States. The study
revealed that this "chaos" news accounted for 22
percent of local Canadian TV news items, compared
to 40 per cent on local TV news in the U.S.
American stations were also more likely to lead
their newscast with a report on crime, accidents
or disasters (72 per cent) than were Canadian
stations (34.7 per cent).
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Homicide reporting United States
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Video, and Evaluations

• Caught in the Crossfire (1993) (60 minutes).
• After video, in final 10 minutes of class, we
  must complete course evaluations.
• Next Week
• Urban Public Space Order and Disorder
• Review for Test 3 (last 30 minutes I will go over
  practice questions)
• I will also post several practice questions on
  our course webpage.

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Another good documentary source on crime

• History of the 20th century videorecording /
  presented by Sir David Frost producer Robyn
  Wallis executive producers David Weiland, Simon
  Welfare. Videocass 003997 AVL Pt.1-26 United
  States Reuters Television, Ltd., 1996. 26
  videocassettes (1248 mim., 48 min. ea.) sd.,
  col. 1/2 in. (VHS) Pt.8. Crime and Terrorism.
  Crime and terrorism videorecording

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There's a notorious "Iron Highway" which brings
guns up from the South.
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Are the same things happening in other western
countries?

• International comparisons

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International Data Urban and Rural Scotland As
the following graph shows, in terms of trends
since 1980, there is some evidence of a slight
narrowing of the gap in absolute levels of
recorded crime between urban and rural Districts,
though is largely accounted for by the sharper
decrease in urban crime rates since the early
1990s.
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International Data South West England Figure 9.4
Rural and urban crime rates 2002/03, rates per
1,000 population