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Park (1925) describes a ground plan for a City but rather than try and create the “perfect” city he wanted to show how different aspects of life can affect a person’s outcome. The article begins with a discussion on the organization of cities, looking at the population, migration and distribution in order to study the mannerisms of the people of the city. According to Park cities are similar to something that would occur in nature and is controlled by many factors, the main one being competition. There will be constant need to new resources/land or anything else which Park predicts will lead to people moving into different areas creating “neighborhoods”. To further understand the role that neighborhoods play in a person’s development it is vital to know what forces give each neighborhood its individual characteristics.
While the article discussed what makes a city and everything that plays into that, the aspect that is related to this week’s theory is what makes up a neighborhood. Park (1925) provided an example of the attempt to change and make better neighborhoods that were deemed “bad” by constructing new playground or new buildings. Primarily, this was done to raise the moral tone of those specific populations. However, this article also states that neighborhoods tend to be created through tradition and culture, leading to isolation and segregation. This almost makes a city within a city that is physically and emotionally distant from the rest of the population. Personal competition is inevitable creating conflict between people in close contact. While Park never explicitly states that this will eventually lead to crime but this is an assumption that can be made.
While the setup of a city is vital to its survival Park also focuses on the moral order of the city. Every city has different jobs and that creates a division of labor and a sort of social group/employment type (Park, 1925, pg. 14). These associations make up certain values
Shaw & McKay (1942) focuses on delinquency rates in urban areas, specifically in Chicago. In order to understand rates of delinquency the authors compared maps of home addresses of boys who had been brought into court for alleged delinquent activity and boys who had committed to a correctional facility and finally with boys who had dealt with police probation officers with or without going to court. To better understand the crime rates that were being seen in the area Shaw and McKay decided to look at social and community factors that could also affect those rates. These factors were population increase or decrease, poverty and racial/ethnic heterogeneity. It was found that poor neighborhoods had no interest in making the neighborhood better leading to higher degrees of crime, similarly due to the constant changing of the population does not promote an environment where the goal is to reduce crime. Shaw and McKay found an association between rates of delinquency and community characteristics. Critical Reaction
Both articles this week investigating whether or not location plays a role in crime/delinquency rates. One of the main issues that was found with this theory and these studies was that researchers use crime rate in neighborhoods as an example of a socially disorganized place however this can lead to issues because it can create a circle. Crime being in an area might actually lead to crime in a neighborhood. The theory does not account for this and neither do Park or Shaw and McKay. Park (1925) only theorized about what factors in a city would lead to “rough” neighborhood and Shaw and McKay (1942) collected data to see if in fact those community factors actually do affect delinquency rates in those neighborhoods. While Shaw and McKay’s study did find data that supports the social disorganization theory, showing that poverty, residential insecurity and heterogeneity does affect crime rates.
Additionally, this theory is based on a macro level view which looks only at groups and places rather than the individual. Therefore there are many other factors that could be affecting Shaw and McKay’s data. There could be a myriad of other reasons as to why crime is occurring that would not align with the social disorganization theory. However, there has been much discussion on what the best way to look at crime is, either through a group or individual level. Park (1925) describes a city where everything that an individual does affects the rest of the population and individuals make up a neighborhood. Social disorganization theory and researchers who are investigating whether or not it stands true do not take into account the individual’s role in whether or not they take part in illegal activities. The theory states that residential location is a large factor in making an individual who they are and that due to where they live, they have a higher likelihood of committing a crime. Originally based in Chicago, these studies look specifically at city locations and the neighborhoods within them but don’t look at more suburban or rural areas. While this theory may be able to explain some crime in specific areas it is unable to explain it outside of the city. If someone were to apply the same conditions to a rural area would the same results be seen? This theory does seem to be very narrow in field, only covering certain areas of the world.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development created an initiative with the plan of replacing dangerous public housing with new sites that have a more livable housing situation. The goal of the project was to decrease crime in those areas by disperse poverty that is usually around in those neglected housing areas. The new buildings were designed according to New Urbanism principles that try and promote mixed income residential areas as well as encourage social interactions to increase the connection between people within the neighborhood. This example took place in middle class neighborhoods in Milwaukee’s North Side that was currently suffering from a decline in the manufacturing sector, there was a lot of violence and declining housing in the area which made it perfect for this program. This program developed from two main thoughts, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design and Social Disorganization theory both of which show the importance of social controls.
In a study done by Cahill, Lowry, and Downey (2012) found that the initiative did not have any significant effect on crime until after redevelopment had occurred and most of the people had moved into the new units. During what they deemed as the stability period, the HOPE VI sites saw crime decrease by approximately 2.7 reported crime when compared to the control site. This example related to this week’s topic and theory and demonstrates that where people live does play a part in crime, that location indeed matters. However, this program’s primary purpose was to create a better neighborhood and the secondary motive was to determine whether or not crime rates will change. This program has been determined to be promising, but there needs to be more studies done to determine if it has enough significant results.
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