Module 7 examines the sociological foundations of crime and deviance, with a particular focus on social structure theories. These viewpoints contend that crime is not just the result of individual choices or psychological traits but is heavily influenced by the social and economic systems, both formal and informal, within society. When structural inequalities—such as poverty, unemployment, residential instability, or limited access to resources—persist, they can foster environments where crime and deviance are more likely to happen.

Social structure theories are generally categorized into three main approaches:

• Social Disorganization Theories highlight how neighborhood conditions, weakened community ties, and lack of collective efficacy contribute to delinquency.
• Strain Theories, including Robert Merton’s classic work and Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory, argue that crime occurs when individuals face a disconnect between socially accepted goals and the legitimate means to achieve them.
• Culture Conflict and Subcultural Perspectives highlight how differing values, norms, and group identities can clash, creating subcultures where deviance and even violence may be viewed as acceptable or necessary.

Beyond theory, this module also examines the policy implications of these perspectives. Social structure theories have influenced major community-focused and anti-poverty programs in the United States, such as the Chicago Area Project (CAP), Mobilization for Youth, and the War on Poverty. By studying these links, students will gain an understanding of how sociological explanations of crime have influenced real-world approaches aimed at strengthening communities, reducing inequality, and preventing crime.

Summary

Social structure theories offer a sociological explanation for crime, highlighting how both individual traits and broader social and economic structures influence deviance. These theories show how inequality, poverty, neighborhood conditions, and cultural conflicts create environments that raise the chances of crime.

The origins of structural explanations trace back to Émile Durkheim, who introduced the concept of anomie, or normlessness, caused by rapid social change and weakened social regulation. Durkheim’s work influenced later theorists like Robert K. Merton, whose classic strain theory explained deviance as the result of blocked opportunities to achieve culturally approved goals. As described in the Precooked Sociology video, Merton identified different “modes of adaptation,” including conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. Robert Agnew later expanded this framework through his General Strain Theory (GST), discussed in Chapter 38, demonstrating how various strains such as discrimination, homelessness, and victimization can generate negative emotions that increase the likelihood of crime.

At the community level, social disorganization theory (Chapter 36) demonstrates how factors such as poverty, residential mobility, and ethnic diversity weaken neighborhood cohesion and reduce informal social control. Developed by Shaw and McKay of the Chicago School, this perspective explained why delinquency tends to cluster in certain urban neighborhoods regardless of the groups living there. Later research introduced the concept of collective efficacy, the willingness of neighbors to work together to maintain order, as a crucial element in crime prevention. Programs such as the Chicago Area Project (CAP) put these ideas into action by investing in youth services, prevention programs, and neighborhood organization.

Social structure theories also include culture conflict and subcultural perspectives. Scholars such as Thorsten Sellin emphasized how crime can arise when groups hold different values about acceptable behavior, while others, including Cohen, Cloward & Ohlin, Wolfgang & Ferracuti, and Miller, argued that subcultures sometimes develop norms that actively encourage delinquency or violence. The WMRA podcast on gun violence and the NPR feature on incarcerated youth using music for coping illustrate how subcultural norms can either reinforce cycles of violence or offer healthier alternatives to criminal coping strategies.

Structural perspectives have had a lasting impact on social policy. Initiatives such as CAP, Mobilization for Youth, and the War on Poverty were shaped by the idea that addressing community disadvantages could reduce crime. More recent approaches, such as environmental criminology and hot spots policing (as seen in Sherman’s research in Minneapolis), build on structural and ecological insights to focus resources on areas most closely linked to crime. At the same time, as highlighted in the Grio Politics’ critique of Broken Windows theory, these policies can lead to unintended consequences, including racial bias and disproportionate surveillance of marginalized communities.

Overall, the readings, reviews, videos, and podcasts in this module show that structural explanations of crime remain central to criminology. They demonstrate that crime cannot be fully understood without examining the communities, opportunities, and cultural contexts in which people live. By recognizing both the strengths and limits of social structure theories, students can better see how criminological theory relates to real-world strategies for prevention, intervention, and social change.

Test Your Knowledge

Print a copy of the following worksheet and bring it to class! As an alternative, complete the worksheet while you read through the summary located above: Worksheet

Key Terms/Concepts

Click on the following key term/concept to view the definition:

Anomie
Chicago School
Clifford R. Shaw and Henry D. McKay (1942)
Collective Efficacy
Concentric Zone Model
CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design)
Culture Conflict Theory
Differential Opportunity (Cloward & Ohlin)
Émile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Focal Concerns (Miller)
General Strain Theory (GST)
Mechanical Solidarity
Middle-Class Measuring Rod
Modes of Adaptation (Merton)
Negative Emotional States (Agnew)
Neutralization Theory
Organic Solidarity
Reaction Formation
Relative Deprivation
Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess (1928)
Robert K. Merton (1910-2003)
Social Disorganization
Social Ecology
Strain Theory
Status Frustration (Cohen)
Subculture of Violence (Wolfgang & Ferracuti)
Subculture Theory
Thorsten Sellin’s Culture Conflict
War on Poverty
Zone in Transition

Read, Review, Watch and Listen

1. Read Chapter 36: Social Disorganization Theory by Jeffrey T. Walker, University of Arkansas, Little Rock

• Print a copy or have access to this reading via a digital device for in class review and discussion.
• To support the student’s reading of the article, they can listen to a recorded version of the same. Note that listening to the article is not a substitute for a careful and directed reading of the document

Part 1:

Part 2:

This chapter:

• outlines the origins and development of Social Disorganization Theory, tracing its roots from plant biology and human ecology to its formalization by Shaw and McKay, who connected urban features to delinquency.
• explains how Shaw and McKay used ecological factors such as physical, economic, and population conditions to analyze patterns of delinquency in urban areas, especially emphasizing the effects of community stability and social norms.
• examines the decline of Social Disorganization Theory in the 1970s, noting criticism of its reliance on official data and the theory’s decreased focus in criminological studies until its partial resurgence in the 1990s.
• introduces the concept of “collective efficacy,” a modern extension of Social Disorganization Theory, emphasizing how neighborhood cohesion and informal social control can reduce crime.
• suggests that the future of Social Disorganization Theory may depend on studies that include collective efficacy and environmental criminology, as the traditional version of the theory keeps being refined or combined with newer frameworks.

2. Read Chapter 38: Strain Theories by Robert Agnew, Emory University

• Print a copy or have access to this reading via a digital device for in class review and discussion.
• To support the student’s reading of the article, they can listen to a recorded version of the same. Note that listening to the article is not a substitute for a careful and directed reading of the document

This chapter:

• explains strain theories as frameworks for understanding crime, suggesting that certain stressors, such as the inability to achieve goals or exposure to negative stimuli, increase the likelihood of criminal behavior as a way of coping.
• Explores Robert Agnew’s General Strain Theory (GST), highlighting how high-magnitude, unjust, and low-social-control strains—such as discrimination, homelessness, and abuse—are especially likely to lead to crime.
• describes how strains influence crime by encouraging negative emotions, especially anger, frustration, and depression, which can lead individuals to commit crimes as a way to find relief or seek revenge.
• highlights factors influencing criminal coping, including poor coping skills, low social support, association with criminal peers, and beliefs that justify crime as a valid response to strain.
• discusses the policy implications of strain theories, advocating for social programs like parental support, anti-bullying initiatives, and job training to reduce strains and promote healthier coping strategies.

3. Review the Chicago Area Project (CAP) website. Identify various initiatives that CAP supports, e.g., community and youth services, prevention and wellness, and workforce development.

a. Environmental criminology is an emerging perspective that builds on routine activities theory, situational crime prevention, and ecological approaches. It emphasizes the importance of location and architectural features in the occurrence of victimization.

b. Lawrence Sherman’s “hot spots” of crime research discovered that a small percentage of locations in Minneapolis generated half of all police calls.

4. Review a category of your choice from The Power of Place The indelible mark of neighborhoods (Vital City Journal, Issue 3). Issue 3 contains several categories from which you will find compelling articles; that is, Setting the Stage, Looking Back, Conversations, etc.

5. Watch How does Merton’s Strain Theory work? Sociology of Crime and Deviance (Precooked Sociology, August 15, 2022) – also embedded below.

a. Strain theory is a sociological idea created by Robert K. Merton in the mid-20th century. It aims to explain deviant behavior by looking at the stress or “strain” individuals feel when they cannot reach socially accepted goals through legitimate means. Here’s a brief overview of strain theory:

b. Strain theory explains that society establishes culturally approved goals, such as success, wealth, and status, which are desirable for all members. It also outlines legitimate ways to reach these goals, like education and hard work.

c. When individuals can’t reach these goals through traditional methods or feel that their options are blocked, they experience a state of “anomie,” or normlessness. This results in feelings of strain and frustration.

d. In response to stress, individuals may use different ways of adapting, which can be divided into five types:

1. 1. Conformity: Individuals continue to pursue societal goals through accepted means.
   2. Innovation: People create new, often unconventional methods to achieve societal goals.
   3. Ritualism: Individuals abandon the pursuit of societal goals but continue to adhere rigidly to the means.
   4. Retreatism: People withdraw from both societal goals and conventional means, often turning to substance abuse or deviant lifestyles.
   5. Rebellion: Individuals reject both the established goals and means, striving to replace them with alternative values and goals.

e. Strain theory proposes that deviant behavior may arise from the inability to resolve the tension caused by the gap between societal goals and the means available to achieve them. The specific type of deviance depends on the individual’s mode of adaptation.

f. Strain theory helps us understand how social structures and opportunities influence individuals’ choices and the potential for deviant behavior when these structures create frustration and blocked opportunities for success. It remains a valuable perspective in criminology and sociology for examining the root causes of deviance and crime.

6. Watch Breaking Down How the Broken Windows Theory Promotes Racial Bias (theGrio Politics, January 29, 2022). Consider the unintended consequences of polices that are rooted deeply in criminological teachings (also embedded below).

7. Watch Public Policy in the 1960s: The War on Poverty | Moynihan (PBS Learning Media) [last accessed September 2025].

8. Watch Street Codes — Code of the Street, Elijah Anderson (Elijah Anderson, March 2025).

9. Listen to Gun violence in our region, and who’s working to curb it (WMRA | Randi B. Hagi, November 21, 2022).

a. Thorsten Sellin suggests that the root causes of crime stem from different values about what is acceptable or proper behavior. Consider which norms are in conflict and how differently socialized groups resolve problems.

b. Franco Ferracuti and Marvin Wolfgang proposed that a subculture exists, emphasizing values that promote violence and aggressive behavior.

c. They suggest that for members of these violent subcultures, violence is a way of life, so the users do not feel guilty about their aggressive behavior.

10. Listen to Incarcerated teens find escape in music and poems composed with artists (NPR-WEBZ Chicago, Olivia Hampton June 2, 2023)

a. Consider that the likelihood of a juvenile reacting to strains with criminal behavior depends on various factors influencing the individual’s (1) ability to engage in legal coping, (2) the costs of crime, and (3) their disposition toward crime. As you listen, identify which aspects of music and the related experience serve as positive reinforcements that enhance the youth’s ability to resist engaging in antisocial behavior.

How does Merton’s Strain Theory work? Sociology of Crime and Deviance

Breaking Down How the Broken Windows Theory Promotes Racial Bias

Collective Efficacy

Street Codes — Code of the Street, Elijah Anderson

Discussion Questions

1. How did the early studies of urban ecology, plant biology, and crime patterns in Chicago influence the development of social disorganization theory?
2. What were the main findings and limitations of the studies that replicated Shaw and McKay’s analysis of ecological characteristics and juvenile delinquency in different cities?
3. How did the concepts of collective efficacy, social capital, and environmental criminology advance the understanding of the relationship between neighborhoods and crime?
4. What are some of the methodological innovations and substantive issues that need to be addressed to test and improve social disorganization theory in the 21st century?
5. How do strain theories suggest that crime can be prevented or reduced? What are some examples of programs or policies that are based on strain theories?
6. What are the types of strain that are most conducive to crime, according to general strain theory? How do these strains differ from other types of strain that are less likely to result in crime?
7. How do emotions mediate the relationship between strain and crime? What are some emotions that are more likely to lead to crime than others? How do gender differences in emotional reactions to strain affect crime rates?
8. How do strain theories explain group differences in crime, such as gender, age, class, and ethnic–racial differences?

Supplemental Resources

• Say NOPE to social disorganization criminology: the importance of creators in neighborhood social control  (Linning, S.J., Olaghere, A. & Eck, J.E. Say NOPE to social disorganization criminology: the importance of creators in neighborhood social control. Crime Sci 11, 5 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-022-00167-y) [last accessed, March. 2024].
• In-class discussion: Legalize Consensual Crimes – Why Not? …Drugs, Prostitution & Gambling
• Reason – Stossel: How owns your body?
• Listen to Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong (APM reports).

a. Indirectly shows how structural disadvantage contributes to crime.