The origin of social disorganization theory can be traced to the work of Shaw and McKay, who concluded that disorganized areas marked by divergent values and transitional populations produce criminality. Strain theories view crime as resulting from the anger people experience over their inability to achieve legitimate social and economic success. These theories hold that most people share common values and beliefs but the ability to achieve them is differentiated throughout the social structure. The best known strain theory is Merton's, which describes what happens when people have inadequate means to satisfy their needs. Cultural deviance theories hold that a unique value system develops in lower class areas.
Subcultures are groups of people within modern society, who have steered away from traditional norms and values and have created their own. These sub-cultures have been known to exist throughout society. Just as sociologists see members of subcultures to have strayed away from society, subcultural strain theorists say that deviants and criminals are those individuals that are involved in deviant subcultures. These members are those who have not been able to achieve the mainstream goals that Marxists say are drilled into their brains through socialisation by the ruling class, e.g. the American Dream.
From Farringtons study they concluded that the most important risk factors are criminality in the family and poor child-rearing. Suggesting that there is a cause and effect between the upbringing of children and how they will act in their childhood and later on in life. This is shown by the results as there was a positive correlation found between those who had convicted parents and those who were convicted of crime before and after their 21st birthday, whilst those who had parents who were not convicted were far less likely to be involved in crime themselves, many other childhood characteristics were shared between the ‘persisters’. A strength of the upbringing approach to psychology is that it is on the nurture side of the nature vs nurture debate, this is shown through the Farrington study as it found that on their 15th birthday 29% of boys from the disrupted families had committed more crime compared to those boys with intact families. However a weakness of the upbringing approach is that it can be considered a reductionist because it ignores biological causes of crime.
This paper will also look at possible racial, gender, and other variations in the family structure-delinquency relationship. Social disorganization theories found that delinquents that commit crimes are results of social issues like their family make up, economic status, discipline, parental deviance, and also child abuse. The concept was designed as an explanation of crime, delinquency, and other social problems. Some consider family to as being the foundation of the human society. I can agree with this because how a person acts with juvenile or adult, it starts in the home.
Individuals who are exposed to these traits influence the social environment. It is said that individual traits and social environment work together to influence crime and may vary among individuals. Some of the traits may include low intelligence, irritability, low reserve, and a lack of sympathy for others. These traits are genetically based and play an important role in explaining why individuals start offending at an early age. It is said that individuals who have these traits may have parents with the same traits.
This then lead for official statistics and the law enforcement to show a bias towards working class boys. This research shows how deviance only exists because people have decided to attach a label, thus the labelling theory is useful in explain how a deviant and criminal behaviour is classed as this. However, it fails to explain why some people certain crime and deviance in the first place before they are labelled. Also, as said in Item a ‘’deviant individuals are labelled when their actions are discovered and provoke reactions from society. However, this reaction will take differing forms, depending on how the nature of the action is perceived.’’ But as well as this, labelling theorists look at the effects and reaction it causes the individual to take.
Social control theory can also be very closely related to Tre as it focuses on the conformity of individuals within society. Social control theory takes place when an individual has a strong need for belonging and they are reinforces doing well in school, hard work and presenting himself better then his friends do. Social control theory is often discredited because it does not point to political or economic standards that play a major role in
They are interconnected systems of inequality. Matrix of domination Families can be a place to resist inequality Social stratification: structured (socially patterned) inequality Groups are socially defined & treated unequally Class Persons occupying the same relative economic rank form a social class. Striking differences in income; growing gap between top 1/5 & bottom 1/5 Occupation is the most frequently used indicator of class. Determines income, opportunity, lifestyle Cultural explanations of class Each class is viewed as having a distinctive culture. Comparisons between the classes usually turn out to be “deficit” accounts of lower-status families.
Of course there could be more structure which would cause gangs to be less damaging to our culture but the original idea behind it is a good one. We have things like Boys and Girls Club or after school programs to keep children busy and out of trouble, but those seem to be for youth whose parents and families are involved in their lives and play an active role in the decisions they make. Other children don’t have that starting at a very young age so they become independent and think they can do things on their own. That is the idea behind a gang. It is a group of individuals that want to find their place but have no direction to guide them.
Sociological model- Child Abuse is considered a sociological phenomenon because it is not the norm behaviour pattern for human beings to follow. This kind of behaviour is usually learned by the parents of the abuser. One group that human beings interact with are their family. Humans are made up of what they have been taught by their family and people around them. Hence if abuse is learnt as a child, they will often grow up to be abusers Psychological model – Family dysfunction theorists look at the dynamics within a family relationship.