Shaw And Mckay Summary

Chapter three and four were both very interesting chapters. Both chapters discuss criminal theories that were derived from methodological explanations. To begin, chapter two focuses on the Chicago school of criminology, and its two inspiring criminologist Clifford Shaw and Henry Mckay. During the 1920’s and 1930s researches began to view crime differently. Criminologist no longer believed that crimes were led by pathology alone; but was a result of social problems that exist around the world. Because of social factors such as poverty, this alone impacted peoples’ lives, and the way he or she thinks. In fact, the Progressives rejected Darwin’s theory that the poor were the less fortunate, but instead the poor was “driven by their environment, not born into lives of
Shaw and Mckay studied juvenile offenders and concluded that Burgess prediction was in fact true. From patterns, they both seen that crime was higher in slum neighborhoods. In fact, racial factors were not the issue, but instead the impact of living in such harsh environments. Youth in these areas lacked the proper guidance and structure, which is essential for detouring negative behaviors. However, when you looked at the youth in the outer zones, they were provided the love, care and proper guidance, which detoured them from lives of crime. Shaw and Mckay became not only known for their influence in the Chicago school of criminology, but as well the integrated theory. As seen in chapter 2, other criminologist such as Sutherland conducted his research off of Shaw and Mckay theory. However, Sutherland looked at how crime begins. Which he concluded that it was in fact learned behavior. For example, if a child witness violent behaviors, then that child only reenacts what he or she sees. For children growing up in lower inner city neighborhoods, where gangs are more prevalent, they tend to follow the trend. The need for survival in these areas out ways societies expectations of being a law abiding