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Chapter 6

Social Structure
Theories

Introduction to Social Structure Theory

 Many criminologists believe that dynamics of interactions

between individuals & social institutions, such as:
 Families
 Peers
 Schools
 Jobs
 Criminal justice agencies
are important to understanding crime, as is
economic status and social class

Economic Structure and Crime

 All societies contain social stratification

 Social classes: segments of population whose members

have similar portion of desirable things, share attitudes,
values, norms, identifiable lifestyle
 upper class
 middle class
 lower class

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Children and Poverty

 1 in 10 children in Canada live in poverty (2007)
 Association between family poverty and children’s health,
achievement, behaviour impairments
 Timing of poverty is relevant
 most severe impact if in early childhood
 Suffer from various social and physical ills
 Described as an “epidemic”
 poverty destroys inner workings of a poor neighbourhood
 Rates vary by race and ethnicity

Economic Structure and Crime

Inequality and Culture

 Lower-Class Slums
 Inadequate housing, health care, and family lives,
underemployed
 Prone to depression, substance abuse/self-medication,
less achievement motivation, no delayed gratification
 Cannot attain goods and services society links to self-
worth
 Turn to illegal solutions

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Economic Structure and Crime

Inequality and Culture

 Culture of Poverty – characterized by
 apathy, cynicism, helplessness, mistrust of authorities and
social institutions
 Passed from generation to generation
 Underclass
 Lowest stratum in any country
 Burdens of underclass most often felt by minorities
 Canada and the Aboriginal population
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Social Structure Theories

 View that disadvantaged economic-

class position is primary cause of
crime
 Social and deteriorated areas push many
residents into crime
 Lower-class crime is often violent,
destructive product of youth gangs and
marginally- or under-employed young
adults
 View middle-class and white-collar crime as
lower frequency, seriousness, danger to
public
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Social Structure Theories

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Social Disorganization Theory

Focus on breakdown of institutions, such as family,

school, employment in inner-city neighborhoods.
 Crime rates are higher in areas which are highly transient,
“mixed-use”, changing
 Localities cannot provide necessary services
 education, health care, proper housing
 High unemployment, single-parent families, families on
welfare, high school drop-out rates
 Residents try to leave these area ASAP

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Social Disorganization Theory

Poverty

Social Disorganization

Breakdown of Social Control

Criminal Areas

Cultural Transmission

Criminal Careers
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Social Ecology School:

Community Disorganization

Association between community deterioration

and economic decline with criminality
 Signs of deterioration of community:
 Disorder, poverty, alienation, disassociation, fear of crime
 Holds true in rural areas as well
 Deserted houses/apartments become a ‘magnet’ for crime
 High violence rates and gun crime
 Increased levels of crime and violence
 Indicators of social disorganization
 Family disruption, changing population, anonymity/isolation
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Social Ecology School : Poverty and

Unemployment

 Strong relationship between crime rate and living in

poverty, broken homes
 Violent crime rate associated with percentage of
neighbourhood living in poverty, lack of mortgage
investment, unemployment rate, number of new
immigrants to area
 Common factors in disorganized areas
 Lack of opportunities linked to crime
 felt by both males and females

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Social Ecology School: Community Fear

Social incivilities in disorganized

neighbourhoods:
 Rowdy youth, trash and litter, graffiti, abandoned
storefronts, burned-out buildings, littered lots, drunks,
etc.
 Neighbourhoods feel unsafe, high chance of being crime
victim
 Fear becomes contagious
 Fear leads to more crime, high chance of victimization
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Social Ecology School: Community Change

 Change is hallmark of many inner-city areas, as

opposed to stability
 Rapid change in racial and economic composition
leads to greater crime rates
 As areas deteriorated, residents flee to safer areas
 Can’t leave? Risk being victim
 Culture develops opposite to conventional society
 Poverty Subculture
 “Concentration effect”
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Social Ecology School: Collective Efficacy

“Collective efficacy”
 Develops in cohesive communities with high levels of social
control
 Mutual trust, willingness to intervene in supervision of children
and maintain public order
 Neighbourhoods use various agencies, institutions of social
control
 If community social control efforts are less effective, crime
rates increase
 Socially disorganized neighbourhoods are in contrast
 Social Apathy

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Social Ecology School: Collective Efficacy

 Why are adequate social controls so

important?

 Children will be less likely to become involved with

deviant peers, problem behaviours
 Ineffective schools and religious institutions
 Limited access to external funding, protection

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Community Policing Model

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Strain Theories
Crime as direct result of lower-class frustration &
anger
 Ability to achieve goals is determined by
socioeconomic class
 Strain is limited in affluent areas
 education, career opportunities are available
 To decrease strain, may:
1) achieve goals through deviant methods; or
2) reject socially-accepted goals and substitute deviant ones

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Theory of Anomie
 Anomie: lack of norms and clear social standards
 2 elements of culture interact to create potentially anomic
conditions:
1) culturally defined goals; and
2) socially-approved means of obtaining them
 Legal means to acquire wealth differ across classes
 Privilege?
 Little education, money then more difficult to legally
acquire wealth
 Strain produces Anomie
 When goals cannot be met legally may turn to criminal
solutions instead
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Theory of Anomie: Social Adaptations

 Each person develops own social adaptations as

way of dealing with goals imposed by society:

1) conformity
2) innovation
3) ritualism
4)retreatism
5) rebellion

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General Strain Theory (GST)

 GST helps to identify individual-

level strain influences
 Premise of theory is that
multiple strain sources interact
with a person’s emotional traits
to result in criminality
 General explanation of crime
rather than one focused on
lower-class

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General Strain Theory (GST)

Multiple Sources of Strain
 Negative affective states – anger, frustration, adverse
emotions produced by a variety of sources of strain

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General Strain Theory (GST):

Coping with Strain

 Not everyone who experiences strain turns to

criminality
 Some cope well with the anger and frustration
 May rationalize frustrating circumstances
 May seek behavioural solutions
 Some people do not cope well with strain
 May have traits that make them more sensitive
 Explosive temper, low adversity tolerance
 Poor problem-solving
 Particularly emotional
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Cultural Deviance Theory

Effects of social disorganization and strain

 Lifestyle can be draining, frustrating for those
in deteriorated neighbourhoods in social
isolation, economic deprivation
 Independent subculture is created
 Lower-class subculture stresses excitement,
toughness, taking risks, street smarts, immediate
gratification (this is different from middle-class
subculture)

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Cultural Deviance theory

POVERTY

SOCIALIZATION

SUBCULTURE

SUCCESS GOALS

CRIME AND DELINQUENCY

CRIMINAL CAREERS
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Cultural Deviance Theory

 Focal concerns: values that have

evolved specifically to fit
conditions in lower-class
environments
 e.g. toughness, street smarts,
autonomy (Table 6.1)

 Holding onto lower-class focal

concerns promotes illegal, violent
behaviour
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Theory of Delinquent Subcultures:

Middle-Class Measuring Rods

Standards by which authority figures evaluate lower-

class children and often prejudge them negatively
 Lower-class children do not have ability to impress authority
figures (who are usually members of the middle-class)
 Negative evaluations (e.g. school) often become, preventing
future advancement
 Delinquency caused by frustration when cannot meet
standards

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Theory of Differential Opportunity

 Concept that, despite sharing success goals, people

in different strata have limited means of achieving
them
 If see themselves as failures in conventional society, may
seek alternative ways to succeed, such as crime
 Opportunity for success in conventional and criminal
careers is limited
 May join gangs as a result

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Theory of Differential Opportunity

 Due to differential opportunity, youth will likely join
one type of gang:
1) Criminal gangs
 are in stable neighbourhoods with environment for
successful criminal enterprise
2) Conflict gangs
 develop in communities having no legitimate or
illegitimate opportunities
3) Retreatist gangs
 contain “double failures”

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Social Policy
Social structure theory has greatly influenced social policy
 Provide opportunities and alternatives to criminal
behaviour
 Give financial aid to those who need it
 Improve community structure in high-crime
neighbourhoods
 Programs initiated, such as:
 Head Start
 Neighbourhood Legal Services
 Breakfast clubs for school-age children
 After-school homework, recreation programs

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