2. Ecological
• The official crime statistics (OCS) show that
recorded crime is not evenly distributed
between geographical areas.
• It is higher in urban areas than rural, and
higher in inner cities and on council estates.
• The British Crime Survey (BCS) data suggests
that people who live in less rural areas worry
less about crime than city dwellers.
3. The Chicago School
• In the 1920s the Chicago School of sociologists
looked at the relationship between criminality
and the urban environment.
• Shaw and McKay, and Park went out on to the
streets to investigate and discovered
neighbourhoods had their own distinct
subcultural values and lifestyles.
4. Zone of Transition
• They discovered that areas with high
turnovers of people in and out prevented the
building of stable communities and a sense of
social control.
• Instead a state of social disorganization, with
little sense of community develops and people
felt little guilt about committing crimes
against their neighbours.
• Influenced by Durkheim’s theory of anomie.
5. Subcultures of Delinquency
• Shaw and McKay noted that areas of social
disorganisation produce delinquent
subcultures which transmit values from one
generation to the next.
• Marshall et al suggest that zones of transition
made up of sink estates can be spotted in UK
cities and they lack any sense of social control.
People feel free to commit crime at will and
no progress is made in these areas.
6. Criticisms of Ecological
• Shaw and McKay’s analysis is tautological, i.e.
it is not clear which comes first: the crime or
the social disorganisation.
• Evidence for inner-city crime comes from the
OCS which are socially constructed and may
tell sociologists more about policing than
crime.
• Majority living in such areas choose not to
commit crime.
7. Criticisms of Ecological
• Shaw and McKay’s analysis is tautological, i.e.
it is not clear which comes first: the crime or
the social disorganisation.
• Evidence for inner-city crime comes from the
OCS which are socially constructed and may
tell sociologists more about policing than
crime.
• Majority living in such areas choose not to
commit crime.