Delinquency In The 1920's

Juvenile Justice
Chapter 5 Assignment
Cristian Contreras

Shaw and McKay’s developed their own theory in the 1920s; this was one of the first attempts to focus on the social conditions that lead to delinquency. They wanted to explain why juvenile crime rates were so high in areas of a city characterized by urban decay. Why was there increased delinquency in the zone in transition? There were three characteristics of interstitial areas identified by Shaw McKay: cultural heterogeneity, mobility, and poverty. In the 1920s, a big number of immigrants from many countries came to the United States and regularly lived in the zone in transition where housing was cheapest. So this means there was a large number of cultures that lived which in other
There are three distinct types of gangs that might form in neighborhoods: criminal gangs, conflict gangs, and retreatist gangs. Criminal gangs exist in organized communities in which younger offenders can gain the necessary knowledge and skills to be successful criminals from older offenders. These gangs are likely to commit crimes such as drug dealing, commercial theft burglary, and other crimes with an economic motive. Conflict gangs don’t have the access to these illegitimate opportunity structures to obtain their goals. These gangs are highly disorganized; there are no adult criminal role models to tutor these youths. Most of the crime these gangs do is individualistic and unorganized. These people may do crazy acts of violence out of anger and frustration. Retreatist gangs may exist in neighborhoods that either do or do not have illegitimate opportunity structures, or they may not have access to those structures. These gangs sell small amounts of drugs. Criminal and Retreatist gangs sell drugs. Conflict and Retreatist gangs do poorly
Here are nine formal propositions that demonstrate that social interaction and learning lead to delinquency. The first one is criminal behavior is learned. Sutherland said delinquency is a function of learning. The second one is criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication. The third one is intimate personal groups is the principal part of the learning of criminal behavior. So you can learn delinquent behavior from families such as parents. The fourth one is when you do criminal behavior; you learn the techniques of committing the crime, specific directions of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes. The fifth one is the specific direction of motives and drives is leaned from definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable. The sixth one is a person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of the law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law. A favorable definition happens when a youth is exposed to ideas or behaviors that are deviant. When a juvenile is associating with others, he has obtained more definitions that are favorable to the violation of the law than are unfavorable, and then delinquency is likely to occur. The seventh is differential associations may vary