Social Disorganization and Differential Association Theories



Social Disorganization and Differential Association Theories

Introduction

Crime refers to a set of acts that are carried out against the laws which are normally implemented and generally accepted by the entire society overall. Crime can also be defined as the conduct of a person or persons who do not meet the requirements of the given society and violate the laws of that particular society. As a result, the crime may differ depending on criminal code of each country. A criminal who commits crime on several occasions can be regarded an anti-social person, since his or her actions undermine the normal functioning of the society, endangering a different nature to its members.

Crime is a unique human behavior, however it is not a spontaneous phenomenon; there are always factors that cause or trigger crime. Criminal aggravation can be considered as the expression of a serious and complicated social unrest which has a direct impact on criminal law. Crimes are carried out in every country of the world and throughout the history. It is not observed in other organisms, in which aggression is limited and prevails only to feed and protect the species and territory. Though, the proper measures implemented in the criminal justice process has a key role in curbing the criminal activities taking place at various locations of the cities.

Therefore, the main purpose of this topic is to study crime and to assess the effectiveness of criminal justice in eliminating the criminal activities. In this paper we will discussed two important theories of crime, Social Disorganization and Differential Association theory. These theories are similar because Social Disorganization and Differential Association have one common ground: understanding and comprehension. Both these theories tend to work with regards to social patterns that exist in the brain and at the same time same time would help us understand and identify the kind of issues that individuals generally experience while living in the society together.

Social disorganization theory

Social disorganization theory is refers to the incapability of a community to identified the common goals and resolve the chronic problems. Moreover, social disorganization has many effects on a community. The residents of community are faced inability to apply social control. According to this theory, the young generation experiences poor education and lack of proper guidance. In addition to that, the community is also involves in higher rate of crimes.

The theory was first discovered by Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay (1969/1942), who revealed that in Chicago neighborhoods a high rate of crime persists for long period of time regardless of the changes in the racial and ethnic composition of these communities, a finding that produce a conclusion that ecological conditions of neighborhood shape crime rates besides the characteristics of individual residents.

The general idea of the Social disorganization theory is that criminals, especially minors, they are not abnormal. They are not "deviant" in relation to its surroundings. In fact, they are quite rational, and they respond to a normal, rational and ...