THE CHICAGO SCHOOL

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THE CHICAGO SCHOOL

• The City, Social Disorganization, and Crime

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Social Ecology

• The persons relation to the social environment.
  
• The study of the spatial distribution of crime
  and delinquency.

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Robert Park Ernest BurgessConcentric Zone Model
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Concentric Zones

• Residents of one zone "migrate" to outer zones as
  their economic positions improve. . . . . . and
  new residents take their place.
• Theorists of the later Chicago School applied
  concentric zone models.

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Summary Concentric Zone Theory

• Chicago as a living laboratory
• The city evolves through radial expansion
• Areas closest to the dynamic core are most impact
  by change.
• Zone 2 the transition zone is seen as primary
  area for deviance
• Pushed by industrial expansion
• Center of residence for newly arrived immigrants
  and migrants
• High levels of mobility
• Unemployment, Single-parent households
• Variety of cultural groups and normative
  confusion

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Clifford Shaw Henry McKay

• Social Disorganization
• poverty
• residential mobility
• racial heterogeneity
• Cultural Transmission

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Social Disorganization

• "A decrease in the influence of existing social
  rules of behavior upon the individual members of
  the group. An area where social institutions,
  norms and values, are no longer functioning."
• Without normative constraintgtAnything
  goesDeviance flourishes.

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Areas of High Delinquency Rates

• Decreasing population
• High percentage of foreign born Negro head
  of household
• High percentage of families on relief
• Low rate of home ownership
• Low median rental values

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Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay

• Delinquency Areas, 1929
• Quantitative study, relies on official
  statistics Spot maps, rate maps and area maps
• Located highest concentration of J.D. in
  neighborhoods in zone 2.
• Project Chicago Area Project-- community
  reorganization, youth programs and environment
  improvement.