A2: Chicago School (Ecology of Crime)

The Chicago School (CS) was a sociological development in the 1920/30s to address changing patterns of behaviour relating to urban sociology. The CS is an attempt to link the human being as an organism to the social structure and environment in which they live. Genetic and personal characteristics are dismissed as part of the CS study which focused on the city of Chicago as the object of their study. The main issue, as a link to crime and deviance, is that due to increased social mobility communities become fractured primarily within what Shaw and McKay call the 'Zone of Transition' which is the inner-city that rings the city centre. Quantitative data was used to support their study in the form of census reports, housing/welfare records and crime figures. The CS largely focus on 'migrant' workers which move into these areas due to cheap housing and access to work, but quickly move away causing social disorganisation. There is a key synoptic link here with the family, schools and the church failing to bond communities, in short communities in the inner city are failing to "solve their problems together" leading to the functionalist ideas of anomie and strain theory.

In criticism of the CS:
1. Do all inner city residents turn to crime;

2. Is this over negative to migrant workers;

3. Are humans simply passive to their environment.

Read a review of the Shaw and McKay investigation on Social Disorganisation Theory.