Social Disorganization Theory In Harper High School

Located on the southside of chicago in a englewood neighborhood is a highschool know as Harper High. The area surrounding this school is known for death of its student residents and gang violence. There were nearly 30 students shot, twenty one wounded by and eight students killed. The school itself is a relatively safe place, but the beefs and fights in the neighborhood around it frequently mushroom into gunplay.The gun violence happens off of school grounds but majority of the time involves the students, leaving them to try and navigate in a world with funerals and homecoming dances. After hearing the descriptive stories from the students and staff at the school it is clear that the social organization of the school, when functioning normally
This is a way of allowing the crime to continue which is referred to as “micro theory”. Clifford Shaw and Henry D. McKay developed social disorganization theory through their research. There theory of social disorganization states “a person’s physical and social environments are primarily responsible for the behavioral choices that a person makes. At the core of social disorganization theory, is that location matters when it comes to predicting illegal activity.: Shaw and McKay also noted that neighborhoods with the highest crime rates have at least three common problems, physical dilapidation, poverty, and higher level of ethnic and cultural mixing. Shaw and McKay claimed that delinquency was not caused at the individual level, but is a normal response by normal individuals to abnormal conditions. Many people say that your home is where you should feel the safest and the students attending harper made it clear that they feel safer at school than anywhere else. The teachers and social workers try and get the student to get involved with activities at the school for as long as they can. About 10% of the student body is involved in gang violence and it affects the student body on and off school grounds. Students began persuading parents to
The social disorganization theory is accurate because living in low income areas definitely has a high impact on criminal activities, however there are other factors that can influence criminal activity, simply as feeling “safe” which was also discussed within the radio broadcast. Also having the money to move out of these low income areas is hard because the people that live there are basically stuck there because they cannot afford to move elsewhere. Leaving the residents to find the best way to make it. In Harper High School, social learning theory is basically in full motion. The police officer in the radio piece explained that one cannot avoid not being affiliated with a gang. The environment has changed where neutrons no longer exist. These students learn these rules from older people and how they are treated from outsiders of their