Social Disorganization Theory provides some of the most enduring and comprehensive explanation for the persistent, development, and spread of gang behaviors. The theory was developed in Chicago by Shaw and McKay in 1942 to hypothesize the behavior and conduct of criminals. It submits that the rates of crime are not evenly dispersed across space and time in an area. Gangs and gang behaviors are products of social dislocations that come with urban life. For example, experiences such as social immobility, poverty, economic isolation, and ethnic conflicts are among the social disruptions that influence gang behaviors (Howell & Griffiths, 2018). Social disorganization disrupts the state of residents and limits social control parameters that regulate gang behaviors.
Social organization theory is informative as it provides a structural explanation concerning the etiology, geographic distribution, and persistence of gangs. The most compelling illustration of this theory applies the ecological analogy of reorganization and disorganization. It alludes that a gang is a temporally, socially, and geographically ‘interstitial’” group that is created to disintegrate the norms and customs of a particular area (Howell & Griffiths, 2018). The gang weakens the social institutions and mechanisms that ensure social control. Additionally, gang represents a spontaneous effort by a section of the people to create an environment; there is no inadequacy to their needs.
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According to the Social Disorganization Theory, gangs often try to control and direct the customs and institutions to make them operate as they prefer. Such an effect relates to the concepts of formalism and economic frontier. There is a lot of deterioration and disintegration that is caused by the presence of gangs. Therefore, an impression of general decay and disorganization is created. The major limitation of the social organization theory is that its theoretical expressions are not empirically tested. So there is not appropriate data that supports the notions of the theory.
References
Howell. J. C, & Griffiths. E. (2018). Gangs in America's communities . Sage Publications.
