WORTH: 4% of semester grade

CAN THIS BE TURNED IN LATE?: NO

BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE FILE-NAMING CONVENTIONS FOR THIS COURSE (5% penalty if you do not).

All files should be saved on your computer as: your last name, followed by an underscore ("_"), followed by the first two letters of your first name, followed by an underscore ("_"), followed by the assignment number. So if a student named Saddam Hussein were to submit assignment number 9, the file name would be:

hussein_sa_9.doc

THIS IS ASSIGNMENT 9

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Questions on Criminology Goes to the Movies, pp. 67-74

Be sure to specific in your answers and provide examples.

DO NOT REPEAT THE READINGS' WORDS--USE YOUR OWN!

The material you will need to respond correctly to the following questions will often spread over several pages, so don't go looking for that one sentence that's the answer.

1) The most enduring of the Chicago School's theories is the concept of "social disorganization" and its consequences. For the Chicago School, even if crime (and juvenile delinquency in particular) clustered in poor neighborhoods, it was NOT economic deprivation itself that caused crime. Rather, it was the "social disorganization" that came with poverty that led to crime and delinquency.

With that concept in mind and thinking carefully about pp. 70 - 71, answer the following question:

Explain what forces and institutions (according to the Chicago School) "regulate" human behavior in ways that mitigate disorder and why both poverty and "transitional zones" interfere with those forces in ways that increase disorder.

Hints:

Look for what social institutions the Chicago School thinks mitigate disorder; then, think about the impact of both poverty and "transitional zones" might have on those. Notice that formal controls (for example, law enforcement) play very little role in the Chicago School's theories.

Requirements:

A) Organize your response around the familiar claim/evidence/warrant format and be sure to have at least two pieces of evidence from the text in the form of direct quotations of no more than 10 words. (see here for how to reduce quotations).

B) Integrate your direct quotations using either METHOD 3 OR METHOD 4 FROM THE EXPLANATION OF HOW TO INTEGRATE QUOTATIONS (-10% IF YOU DO NOT)

C) Provide the page number for your quotation in any format you choose (e.g. "(Rafter, p.14)"

2) Explain in your own words what Burgess (quoted by Rafter, the author of the article you read for today) means by this statement on p. 71 of the chapter by Rafter:

"Disorganization as a preliminary to reorganization of attitudes and conduct is almost invariably the lot of the newcomer to the city, and the discarding of the habitual and often of what has been to him the moral, is not infrequently accompanied by sharp mental conflict and a sense of loss."

To help you, find below definitions of some of the words above as Burgess uses them.

"Preliminary" = (n.) a first step

"reorganization" = (n.) a remaking, a change

"attitudes" = (n.) a feeling or way of thinking that affects a person's behavior (Burgess is not using the word "attitude" here as it is often used in informal conversation to "cop an attitude")

"conduct" = (n.) behavior

"almost invariably" = "nearly always"

"the lot of the newcomer to the city" = "what happens to newcomers when they arrive in the city"

"habitual and often of what has been to him the moral" = "what newcomers used to believe was normal, customary, and moral to do"

"not infrequently" = "often"

 

3) How might someone who believes in the Chicago School use the idea of "residential succession" to argue against someone else who believed that high crime rates in a neighborhood reveal the greater criminality of the ethnicity living there? This question might require several sentences to answer.

4) Before the Chicago School, thinking about crime often stressed the biological or psychological make-up of individuals when explaining crime's origins. Using Clifford Shaw's work (see the reading), explain how and why the Chicago School's theories regarding "social disorganization" were so different from what came before.

EXTRA-CREDIT POSSIBILITY FOR QUESTION 4: For an extra 2.5 points, organize your response around the familiar claim/evidence/warrant format and integrate your direct quotations using either METHOD 3 OR METHOD 4 FROM THE EXPLANATION OF HOW TO INTEGRATE QUOTATIONS

 

5 PT. EXTRA-CREDIT QUESTION-- but see that there are more, REQUIRED questions below. IF YOU DON'T DO THE EXTRA-CREDIT QUESTION YOU CAN SKIP PP. 73-74

Why, according to Sampson (a modern day adherent of an updated version of the Chicago School), might a poor neighborhood where people moved in and out frequently experience high levels of crime in ways that have nothing to do with "broken windows" Organize your response around the familiar claim/evidence/warrant format and be sure to have at least two pieces of evidence from the text in the form of direct quotations of no more than 10 words. (see here for how to reduce quotations) TO BE CLEAR: "BROKEN WINDOWS" AS A THEORY OF POLICING IS VERY DIFFERENT THAN THE CHICAGO SCHOOL'S PERSPECTIVE.

 

REQUIRED Questions on The Slums and Crime

5) According pp. 7-8 of The Slums and Crime, how does a poor neighborhood lead to social disorganization? (don't look for the phrase "social disorganization"--it's not there. Look for phenomena that fit the meaning of the phrase.)

EXTRA-CREDIT POSSIBILITY FOR QUESTION 5: For an extra 2.5 points, organize your response around the familiar claim/evidence/warrant format and integrate your direct quotations using either METHOD 3 OR METHOD 4 FROM THE EXPLANATION OF HOW TO INTEGRATE QUOTATIONS