Race And Crime In Urban Areas Essay

Clifford R. Shaw and Henry D. McKay (107) observed Juvenile Delinquency in urban areas, and one of the first things they discussed in their chapter was the different values in separate economic areas of the city, and how the socioeconomic status contributes to the amount of crime. Secondly, they discussed differential social organization, which includes the differences in values between the communities (Shaw and McKay). A Theory of Race, Crime and Urban inequality is explained by Robert J. Sampson and William Julius Wilson (114) and they discussed the effects of community structure of race and crime in urban areas. Another thing that Sampson and Wilson (116) debated was the ecological concentration of race and social dislocations. Finally, they discuss the structure of
Collective Efficacy and Crime argues that crime is caused by a lack of ties to a community and/or neighbors (Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls). I can see how this might happen, in the small community where I grew up everyone knew everyone so if you committed a crime or act of deviance, your parents would find out through the grapevine before you ever made it home. Considering these social ties connecting the community, I can imagine without them, youths would be less likely to be caught and get away with more than those in communities with strong social ties. I can see the perspectives of all of these theories, I just think that Collective Efficacy and Crime has the best argument for why crime happens in the areas without strong social ties. One of the critics of this sub-theory, is that the neighborhoods and communities might be the main reason for crime in these areas. It may be that crime is high in these areas because people who commit crime move to these areas (Francis T. Cullen, Robert Agnew, and Pamela