Crime and Deviance

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how sociologists have linked environmental approaches that concern the criminology of place and time to the study of crime. It looks at how such ideas were developed by sociologists from the University of Chicago, who expanded on Durkheim's theories of deviance, by focusing their studies on theoretical and empirical links between the environment, deprivation and crime.

From the Paper:

"The idea presented by the Chicago sociologists of social disorganization has been heavily criticized by other sociologists. Some British researchers argue that this idea doesn't "fit the facts" because during the inter-war years when the theories were developed the criminal "subcultures" in Chicago appeared to be the archetype of highly organized crime, with organizations such as the notorious Irish political groups and the Sicilian Mafia. Another criticism of these sociologists could be that by terming the diverse groups who were linked with criminal activities as part of an American "subculture" the sociologists defined Anglo-Saxon Protestant Americans as "American culture" and saw subcultures as deviant from that viewpoint."

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