Question One
The Delinquency and Opportunity theory established that young criminals belong to certain small groups or systems with a hateful attitude towards society. Individuals from lower-class families always depict themselves as disadvantaged in monetary success and thus turn to crime to fit in the community’s different classes. For example, unemployed graduates may resort to forming gangs that commit a crime such as a robbery to earn a living (pg 172)
Question two
A broken window is a theory which states that signs of chaos and misconduct in an environment usually motivate further mischief and chaos. A broken window is a metaphor for misconduct in a neighborhood. (pg 200). For instance, when nobody repairs a broken window even after noticing it, others will assume that there is no punishment for breaking a window and thus continue breaking other windows in the neighborhood.
Question 3
Shaw and McKay in 1942 studied locations of young children in Chicago by use of a spatial map. Their primary goal was to try to establish why certain areas are prone to crime than others. The studied places were referred to as Chicago Courts; they found that crime across the city was not equally spread, and lower class society had more juvenile criminals. Crime-prone neighborhoods were characterized by poverty. Children living in the slums tend to be violent and engages in more criminal activities than their counterpart dwelling in posh estates (199)
Question 4
Durkheim believed that crime exists and forms part of a society as it is required to create boundaries and differentiate between law-abiding and law-breakers in the community. The social Structure has three branches, which include Social disorganization, which states that individuals living in informal settlements violate the law since they live in areas with very low social control. Strain theories established that crime results from people’s anger over incapability to be successful this can. Merton’s Strain Theory explains the repercussions when individuals lack sufficient means to accomplish their daily needs. Cultural deviance theory holds that a specific value system is created in a low-income society. (pg 196)
Number 5
Social Structure theories establish that an individual’s socioeconomic status determines one’s capacity to venture into criminality. Persons from the lower class engage in crime to attain success. A low-income person may develop a dissatisfied feeling that if they could make enough money, they could be like others, the urge to be like other people who are well of. In a society thus pushing the individual to form an association with others, which could be a legal or illegal group to champion for equality in the community, Current policies such as the provision of equal education reduce poverty through employment creation, thus reducing the crime rate; it is therefore successful. ( pg 221)
Question 6 t
Merton illustrated that crime rates varied across Chicago in the Anomie Theory. He described that the high quality of crime was due to the nature of American society. America concentrates more on having monetary success. Institutional Anomie Theory elaborated more on Anomie Theory and deduced that the American dream of material success strain the people with low income, thus resolving to crime. General Strain Theory established by Agnew’s (1985 and 1992) states that pressures result in negative attitudes and anger, leading to an increased crime rate. (pg 205). The American people put more effort into accumulating money, forgetting to lay a foundation on the population with many difficulties in meeting their needs, which may include poor shelter or an unbalanced diet.
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