Social organization and crime in two Chicago neighborhoods

¶ … Social Control

Integration of Knowledge of the Essay 'The City' with the Four Neighborhoods Described in 'There Goes the Neighborhood'

The objective of this study is to integrate the knowledge of the essay entitled "The City" with the four neighborhoods described in "There Goes the Neighborhood." This work will develop an analysis of how and why the features of the area chosen produce or lead to crime and disorder. This work will choose two of the four areas or neighborhoods described and summarize the main features including income, location, population, and race/ethnic composition and will discuss the salient factors in the location that lead to stability and the salient factors that produce change or instability. This work will identify the primary threats perceived or identified by the residents and how these threats are related to ideas such as invasion, succession, or the cycle of conflict, competition, accommodation, and assimilation. This work will answer as to where the location of the two neighborhoods are in relationship to these processes. This work will answer as to how the social organization make up the locations chosen shape or affect the crime and disorder of concern and will finally, answer as to what belief system is predominant in the areas chosen for analysis.

Introduction

The work of Sampson and Wilson (1995) entitled "Toward a Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Equality" reports that many people "engage in subterfuge, denying race-related differentials in violence and focusing instead on police bias and the alleged invalidity of official crime statistics" and that this is despite the plethora of evidence including death records, surveys and statistical information that demonstrates clearly that "blacks are disproportionately victimized by, and involved in, criminal violence." (p.1) Sampson and Wilson report that the evidence is clear that African-Americans are up against "dismal and worsening odds when it comes to crime in the streets and the risk of incarceration." (p.1) The work of Pattillo (1998) states that social organization "is goal oriented. Social disorganization is defined as the 'inability of community structure to realize the common values of its residents and maintain effective social controls." (p.748) Therefore, social organization is a term that makes reference to the 'effective efforts of neighborhood actors toward common ends." (Pattillo, 1998, p. 748)

I. Beltway -- A Chicago Neighborhood

Beltway, a Chicago neighborhood is characterized by what is referred to as "the new parochialism, where diminished private and traditionally parochial forms of social control are replaced by a combination of parochial and public controls." (Carr, 2003, p.1) Carr reports that this new parochialism is such that is "occasioned by wider societal and local changes, and the concept is shown to have theoretical and empirical implications." (Carr, 2003, p.1) Pattillo reports that stable low-income areas are likely to develop "organized criminal subcultures where the 'neighborhood milieu [is] characterized by close bonds between different age-levels of offenders, and between criminal and conventional elements." (p.749) Pattillo additionally notes that in these types of locations that neighborhood stability may serve to enable the "formation of an alternative opportunity structure based on organized crime, which benefits from both criminal and law abiding residents" and that the relationships that extend across the law formulate the framework for organized crime "among Irish, Italian and Jewish immigrants alike." (1998, p.750) In poor neighborhoods, individuals on the wrong side of the law are reported to make provision of social and economic resources that are important to their relations, friends, and neighbors alike. (Patillo,1998, paraphrased)

III. Theories and Research on Crime in Neighborhoods

The work of Shaw and McKay (1942) was the first to postulate that "regulatory activities carried on by neighborhood residents can impede criminal and delinquent behavior, and indeed a recent reformulation of the notion of social disorganization has emphasized the 'systemic' nature of these internal controls." (Carr, 2003, p.2) The systemic model holds that "the structure of relational networks, or density of social ties, determines the extent to which a neighborhood can engage in self-regulation. Sampson and Wilson report that it is supported by one theory that the "scarcity of employed black males relative to black females was directly related to the prevalence of families headed by women in black communities." (1996) In addition, disruption in black families is directly related "to rates of black murder and robbery, especially by juveniles." (Sampson and Wilson, 1996, p. 149) This specific research theory is that of Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay at the Chicago School, which was a community level approach of "modern American studies of ecology and crime." (Sampson and Wilson, 1996, p.150)

The classic work of Shaw and McKay entitled "Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas" (1942) holds that three structural factors result in disruption of local community social organization and resulted in crime variations and delinquency rates. Those three are stated as: (1) low economic status; (2) ethnic heterogeneity; and (3) residential mobility. (Sampson and Wilson, 1996, p. 150) Research studies show that family disruption affects juvenile violence more than adult violence and family structural effects are linked to "macrolevel patterns of social control and guardianship, especially for youth and their peers." (Sampson and Wilson, 1996, p.151)

Joblessness and poverty are found to have a great deal of indirect influence on disruption of the family. Furthermore, it is reported that the "sources of violent crime appear to be remarkably invariant across race and rooted instead in the structural differences among communities, cities, and states in economic and family organization." (Sampson and Wilson, 1996, p.151) Two elements that result in community acceptance of organized crime are reported to be those of: (1) poverty; and (2) powerlessness. (Pattillo, 1998, p.752) In other words, barriers that exist to success-oriented goals that are legitimate in nature serve to foster acceptance of organized crime.

Carr (2003) writes that the Beltway studies serve to demonstrate how even in a neighborhood not characterized by dense social ties that informal social control can work through organizations in the community and the links that these organizations have with public agencies outside of the neighborhood. According to Carr, "The salience of informal social control for self-regulation generally, and for the control of crime specifically, is evident on the theoretical level. It is almost common sense to say that if the members of the community regulate behaviors and sanction deviants then there will be less deviation from established norms." (2003, p.752) Carr states that the information gained during the findings of the Beltway study should be "viewed in the context of discovery." (2003, p.755)

Systemic theory is reported as based upon the work of Kasarda and Janowitz (1974) which holds that local community is "…a complex system of friendship and kinship networks and formal and informal associational ties rooted in family life and ongoing socialization processes" (p. 329). The complex of network social ties mediates between neighborhood structural variables, length of residence for example, and outcomes for the community, among them the informal control of crime." (Carr, 2003, p.756)

The concept of informal social control is tied to systemic theory by Janowitz (1975) who is reported to hold "for a return to what he considers the classical usage of social control, namely, the capacity for a group to engage in self-regulation." (Carr, 2003, p.756) It is held that self-regulation can be achieved "through the density of neighborhood social ties that mediate between the structural variables of poverty, residential mobility and ethnic and racial heterogeneity and crime rates." (Carr, 2003, p.757)

The Hunter model of social control is one that holds that effective social control requires three levels of informal social control: (1) private; (2) parochial and (3) public and as such all three types of informal social control must work in unison. In both Beltway and Groveland the poorer minority racial classes are seen as threats due to the inherent violence and gang-related criminal behavior that characterizes these social groups. Informal social control in Beltway is described as a process that is complex in nature. The behaviors of adults in Beltway are varied and focused on control of "disorder, deviance, and crime." (Carr, 2003, p.760) Carr notes that children are supervised closely however, teenagers oftentimes left to their own designs. The supervision of children is described as "collective…expected….subconscious…" or in other words has become the norm or a way of living in Beltway as this type of collective supervision is reported throughout the entire community of Beltway and its activities and community functions. (Carr, 2003, p. 760) It is reported that people do not sit on their porches in Beltway even in the summer months. Among those interviewed in Beltway, Carr reports that 90% of individuals when witnessing criminal activities on the part of local teens do not intervene themselves but instead dial 911 for police intervention. Self-regulation in neighborhoods with residential instability that is high or a high turnover of the population experience more difficulty with informal social control and as defined by the systemic theory "social disorganization" is the "regulatory capacity of a neighborhood that is imbedded in the structure of that community's affiliational, interactional, and communication ties among its residents." (Carr, 2003, p.761)

Summary and Conclusion

The residents of neighborhoods such as Beltway and Groveland are hovering on the brink of criminal activity, violence and a wide range of the ills of society resulting from poverty and powerlessness and this strikes fear in the hearts of these residents who collectively work toward building a strong community and using informal social control in the attempt to self-regulate the behavior of the community's population. Informal social control through local organizations and the public organization affiliations is effective for these areas however, there is an overwhelming fear that lurking is the potential for their society to become out of control and for violence and chaos to enter the lives and community of Beltway and Groveland and destroy what has been so difficult to attain and sustain for these residents and the families residing in these neighborhoods. It is important to understand that middle-class primarily white neighborhoods do not have the same challenges as do primarily black middle-class neighborhoods and as such there is a gap or inequality in the quality of life experienced by middle-class black and middle-class white neighborhood populations.