SOC205H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: White-Collar Crime, Ethnography, Dust Bowl
Document Summary
Moving away from individual-based explanations and looking at the role of social context to explain some individuals commit crime and others don"t. Social structural conditions where you live, who you parents are, how people react to what you look/sound like, etc. Social processes where goals and values come from, how friendships form, where bias comes from, how inequality increases, etc. Individual v. social theories = nature (biological determinism) v. nurture (sociological) Context - greater awareness of and more sympathetic to poverty. Content - social context neighborhood, social intimates, exposure to ideas creates criminogenic conditions. Key theorists - chicago school"s burgess, shaw & mckay; sutherland; merton. Problems - some causal inference issues (ordering, necessary/sufficient, generalizability) Impact - encouraged community development and rehabilitation programs. Legacy - aker"s social learning theory, agnew"s general strain theory. Chicago"s unique setting - extensive population growth and urbanization. Changing views of poverty (memory of great depression, 1929 1939)
