Preview

Theory of Ecology-Cause of Crime

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
351 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Theory of Ecology-Cause of Crime
The theory of Ecology, meaning disorganized neighborhoods, is the theory that best explains the causes of crime. Ecological criminology was the first social criminology. This developed during the 1920s at the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago. Ecology is the study of relationships between an organism and the environment it lives in, and this type of theory explains crime by the disorganized eco areas where people live instead of the kind of people who live there. The major factors of crime are poverty, crowded homes, and unsupervised teens. The greater the number of people in a neighborhood, the more likely adolescence will commit crimes. There are more opportunities for crimes to take place and more possible victims in a small area. There is also the proposed idea that there is a higher level of personal interactions in small neighborhoods. An example is kids in low population neighborhoods like wealthy suburbs where some effort is required for a smaller child or adolescent to see another because of the distance between the destinations. Kids in this type of area are more easily limited with their contact with other undesirable children.
In over populated neighborhoods, the undesirable kids live in the same building as the more moral ones, and are nearly unavoidable. Neighborhoods can be dense and poor, homes can be crowded. There are reports that crowded homes cause family members, most often teens, to stay away. When this happens, teens go outside and group up places such as parks, alleys, pool halls etc. These circumstances cause levels of temptation and opportunity to commit crimes to rise. The lack of the quality of life in these areas is also a leading cause of crimes; people are lacking their natural rights to a productive environment and positive influences.
There are many factors that lead crimes to be committed. My opinion is that the Theory of Ecology is the theory that best describes why crimes are committed. Of course other

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Crime is bad behavior displayed by citizens who reject societal norms and instead chose to commit crime. However, there are many types of theories of why crime occurs the most prevalent cause for crime involves the social environment of the criminal offender. Psychological theories discusses that these interruptions in childhood development is the cause for crime but because the delays developmental is the effect of the criminal’s environment. The same goes for biological theories that find genetic or biological factors that make a person more prone to become a criminal but require certain environmental factors for the person in reality to become a criminal.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Exposer to neighborhood modeling influences, favorable to criminal attitudes and behaviors and an impossible task of separating out bad genes from either parental examples of criminal behavior or inadequate parenting, contributes to the delinquency.…

    • 228 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What are the central assumptions of biological theories of crime? How do such theories differ from other perspectives that attempt to explain the same phenomena?…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    General Strain Theory

    • 2128 Words
    • 9 Pages

    There are many criminological theories to explain why crime and criminals work the way they work. Five theories are fit into a majority of today’s crime cases are Anomie theory by Emile Durkheim, General strain theory by Robert Agnew, Social Disorganization theory by Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, Social Bonding theory by Travis Hirschi, and the Containment theory by Walter Reckless. Anomie is when there is a clear lack of social norms and values. This is common among teens who grew up in a dysfunctional, abusive family. General strain theory is used an individual is strained and unable to cope with the strain so they commit their time to doing crimes. Social Disorganization theory shows why certain neighborhoods experience more crime rates…

    • 2128 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Theories of Crime

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages

    References: Williams III, F. P. & McShane, M. D. (2010). Criminological theory (5th ed.). (Online version). Retrieved from AIU Online Virtual Campus. Theories of Crime Causation: CRJS105-1204A:01 website.…

    • 1359 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Juvenile Delinquents

    • 2717 Words
    • 11 Pages

    S. is concentrated in urban areas. Specifically, while the 20 largest cities in American accounted for approximately one-third of all homicides in 1992, their population represents approximately one-eighth of the nation. Much research in criminology has linked the probability of a child becoming involved in crime with his having grown up in a poor family, and/or in neighborhoods with high crime and poverty rates. Between 1970 and 1990, the number of Americans living in high poverty in American living in high census tract nearly doubled. The growth in the concentration of poverty in America and its potential effects on adolescent crime is of considerable importance since the spatial distribution of poor families is closely related to government decisions regarding how to provide housing services to poor families and pertaining to the construction of public housing contribute to the high rise of juvenile…

    • 2717 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Theories are useful tools, which suggest the way things are and not the way things ought to be, we can use them to help us to understand the world around us. In terms of criminal and deviant behaviour the theories proposed in this subject area set out to try and give reason as to why an individual commits criminal or delinquent acts. In this essay I will be using biological, psychological and sociological explanations of criminality to suggest why individuals take part in criminal behaviours.…

    • 1629 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    The aim of this essay is to compare, contrast and evaluate two sociological theories of crime causation and two psychological theories of crime causation.…

    • 1985 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Neighborhoods that suffer from high levels of criminal activity often become reason for one to…

    • 105 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Theories Of Criminology

    • 1665 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The debate regarding criminality being a result of nature or nurture has been a topic of discussion both within criminology and outside of it for decades. Criminologists brought forward theories attempting to address and explain this paradox, and explanations for crime included psychological, sociological, economical, biological reasons, amongst…

    • 1665 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The most common areas that crimes are committed are in areas that are subjected to poverty. Many kids are influenced by the community they live in. Poverty puts a great deal of stress on people and they often lack material things that they need or want. They feel pressured being in a poor society that values material possessions and wealth. For example, generations are brought up in the housing developments and kids are not accustomed to wanting more out of life other that what they are surrounded by daily. Tearing down the old housing developments and involving mix income has become a success in the housing system. Crime has dropped drastically in the new developments and hopefully soon they will all be torn down and replaced with the modern apartment style…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Children will in most cases emulate what they see happening around them. If the child grows to find drugs, weapons, or violence being the order of the day, they are most likely to follow suit. In these communities, drugs and alcohol are the primary causes of criminal activities. According to the newspapers and other media channels, those who are found guilty or criminal activities are in most times under the influence of drug or alcohol. The impact of neighborhoods can help explain why so many inmates come from similar backgrounds and…

    • 2206 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Most juveniles come from low income homes in low income neighborhoods. Does living conditions affect and lead the child to juvenile acts? According to Demuth and Brown, “Children from broken homes are more delinquent than those from intact families.” Imagine a child barely having anything to eat each day, and not having a father or a mother to take care of them throughout the day. With no supervision, and brains not fully developed, they will perform their own actions without parental guidance. According to Voisin, Neilands, Salazar, Crosby, and DiClemente, “Youths who are exposed to high rates of violence within their communities are at greater risk of engaging in illicit drug use.” Being in an area where all that matters is “street cred” these delinquents join gangs and commit illegal acts. Being in a gang usually leads to substance abuse which also leads to addiction.…

    • 2278 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Biological theories of crime causation follow the principle that many behavioral tendencies, including aggression and criminality, are constitutionally or physiologically influenced. Most of the usual sociological suspect would have come from a broken or abusive home, is a part of a family below the poverty or has a parent who is convicted criminal. All of these examples support the biological theories and most of the time people living in those conditions are more susceptible to…

    • 1633 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gang Social Factors

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Second risk factor that my study will examine is the neighborhood that my participants live in. disorganized neighborhoods are a key factor for gang activities, because abandon, board up buildings are hot spots for youth gang gathering. The reason we have disorganize neighborhood is because prominent members and business owners move out of crime plague neighborhood and no one is left to take care of…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays