Crime Zones

Vince Zwilling

Criminology 1:00 T/R

Professor Corbin

Crime Zones and Reasoning (Poverty, Race, Social Class)

Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that attempts to help us understand society and how people interact. As with many other social sciences, sociology employs theories to help understand why people make certain decisions. Theories that help us explain societal trends are usually segmented in order to accurately examine the specific dynamics of different sections of society. Communities, institutions, gender, race and population are a few popular examples of common segmentations utilized in social theories. Social structure theories, also called social change theories attempt to analyze the driving forces that change society. Sociologists who study social change use the study of both criminology and sociology to draw conclusions about criminal behavior. The overarching belief of criminology theory is that certain social structures support deviant behavior. The three main branches of social structure theories are the social disorganization theory, the social strain theory and the cultural deviance theory. How well have social structure theories explained delinquent behavior in society? In this paper, the major social structural theories will be defined and analyzed.

Social Disorganization Theory: Concentric Zone Theory

The Centric Zone Theory was proposed by Shaw, and examined arrest rates in Chicago. It was during these years immigrants living in the inner city begin to relocate to the outskirts of the city. The purpose of their study was to conclude if delinquency was caused by particular immigrant groups or by the environment in which immigrants lived. Park and Burgess