SOC 2700 Exam (WEEK 5) Questions
and Answers 2026 Updated.
Three major types of social structure theories: - Answer social disorganization, strain theory
and culture conflict theory
- all three have a number of common elements, and the classification is often a matter of which
aspect a writer focuses on
Social structure theory - Answer theories emphasize poverty, lack of education, absence of
marketable skills, and deviant subcultural values as fundamental causes of crime. These
theories, which portray crime as the result of an individual's location within the structure of
society and focus on the social and economic conditions of life, are divided into three types.
Social Disorganization Theory - Answer -1920s-1930s
-Robert Park, Ernest Burgess, W. I. Thomas, Florian Znaniecki, Clifford Shaw, Henry McKay, Oscar
Newman, James Q. Wilson, George L. Kelling
- Depicts social change, social conflict, and the lack of social consensus as the root causes of
crime and deviance; an offshoot, social ecology, sees society as a kind of organism and crime
and deviance as a disease or social pathology
-Social ecology, ecological theories, social pathology, social disorganization, Chicago School,
Chicago Area Project, demographics, concentric zones, delinquency areas, cultural transmission,
collective efficacy, social cohesion (criminology of place, crime prevention through
environmental design [CPTED], environmental criminology, defensible space, crime pattern
theory, and the broken windows theory represent, at least in part, a contemporary
reinterpretation of early ecological notions.)
Strain theory - Answer -1930s to present
-Robert K. Merton, Steven F. Messner, Richard Rosenfeld, Peter Blau and Judith Blau, Robert
Agnew
-Points to a lack of fit between socially approved success goals and the availability of socially
approved means to achieve those goals. As a consequence, according to the perspective of
strain theory, individuals who are unable to succeed through legitimate means turn to other
avenues (crime) that promise economic and social recognition.
-Anomie, goals, means, innovation, retreatism, ritualism, rebellion, differential opportunity,
relative deprivation, distributive justice, general strain theory (GST)
Culture Conflict Theory - Answer -1920-present
-Thorsten Sellin, Frederic M. Thrasher, William F. Whyte, Walter B. Miller, Gresham Sykes, David
Matza, Franco Ferracuti, Marvin Wolfgang, Richard A. Cloward, Lloyd E. Ohlin, Albert Cohen,
many others
, -suggests that the root cause of criminality can be found in a clash of values between variously
socialized groups over what is acceptable or proper behavior
-Concepts: Subculture, violent subcultures, socialization, focal concerns, delinquency and drift,
techniques of neutralization, illegitimate opportunity structures, reaction formation, conduct
norms
Human ecology - Answer to describe the interrelationship between human beings and the
physical and cultural environments they live in
Social disorganization - Answer A condition said to exist when a group is faced with social
change, uneven development of culture, maladaptiveness, disharmony, conflict, and lack of
consensus.
Chicago School of Criminology - Answer An ecological approach to explaining crime that
examines how social disorganization contributes to social pathology.
- used two sources of information: population stats and ethnographic data (people and their
cultures)
Ecological Theories - Answer a type of sociological approach that emphasizes demographics
(characteristics of population groups) and geographies )the mapped location of such groups
relative to one another) and that sees the social disorganization that characterizes delinquency
areas as a major cause of criminality and victimization
Shaw and Mckay - Answer -saw social disorganization as the inability of local communities to
solve common problems and believed that the degree of disorganization in a community was
largely predicated upon the extent of residential mobility and racial heterogeneity present in
that community.
Cultural Transmission - Answer The idea that delinquency is transmitted through successive
generations of people living in an area through the same process of social communication by
which languages, social roles, and attitudes are transmitted.
-Shaw and mckay
Park and Burgess - Answer Concentric Zone Theory
-Zone I, or the "loop," contained retail businesses and light manufacturing; Zone II, also referred
to as "zone in transition," surrounding the city center, was home to impoverished immigrant
groups, and was characterized by deteriorating houses and factories and abandoned buildings;
Zone III, also known as the "working-class" zone, contained the second group of immigrants
who escaped the poverty conditions of Zone II. Zone IV was occupied by middle-class citizens
with single-family homes; and Zone V, the suburbs, was called the "commuter zone." Park and
Burgess noticed that residents of the inner zones tended to migrate to outer zones as their
economic positions improved.
and Answers 2026 Updated.
Three major types of social structure theories: - Answer social disorganization, strain theory
and culture conflict theory
- all three have a number of common elements, and the classification is often a matter of which
aspect a writer focuses on
Social structure theory - Answer theories emphasize poverty, lack of education, absence of
marketable skills, and deviant subcultural values as fundamental causes of crime. These
theories, which portray crime as the result of an individual's location within the structure of
society and focus on the social and economic conditions of life, are divided into three types.
Social Disorganization Theory - Answer -1920s-1930s
-Robert Park, Ernest Burgess, W. I. Thomas, Florian Znaniecki, Clifford Shaw, Henry McKay, Oscar
Newman, James Q. Wilson, George L. Kelling
- Depicts social change, social conflict, and the lack of social consensus as the root causes of
crime and deviance; an offshoot, social ecology, sees society as a kind of organism and crime
and deviance as a disease or social pathology
-Social ecology, ecological theories, social pathology, social disorganization, Chicago School,
Chicago Area Project, demographics, concentric zones, delinquency areas, cultural transmission,
collective efficacy, social cohesion (criminology of place, crime prevention through
environmental design [CPTED], environmental criminology, defensible space, crime pattern
theory, and the broken windows theory represent, at least in part, a contemporary
reinterpretation of early ecological notions.)
Strain theory - Answer -1930s to present
-Robert K. Merton, Steven F. Messner, Richard Rosenfeld, Peter Blau and Judith Blau, Robert
Agnew
-Points to a lack of fit between socially approved success goals and the availability of socially
approved means to achieve those goals. As a consequence, according to the perspective of
strain theory, individuals who are unable to succeed through legitimate means turn to other
avenues (crime) that promise economic and social recognition.
-Anomie, goals, means, innovation, retreatism, ritualism, rebellion, differential opportunity,
relative deprivation, distributive justice, general strain theory (GST)
Culture Conflict Theory - Answer -1920-present
-Thorsten Sellin, Frederic M. Thrasher, William F. Whyte, Walter B. Miller, Gresham Sykes, David
Matza, Franco Ferracuti, Marvin Wolfgang, Richard A. Cloward, Lloyd E. Ohlin, Albert Cohen,
many others
, -suggests that the root cause of criminality can be found in a clash of values between variously
socialized groups over what is acceptable or proper behavior
-Concepts: Subculture, violent subcultures, socialization, focal concerns, delinquency and drift,
techniques of neutralization, illegitimate opportunity structures, reaction formation, conduct
norms
Human ecology - Answer to describe the interrelationship between human beings and the
physical and cultural environments they live in
Social disorganization - Answer A condition said to exist when a group is faced with social
change, uneven development of culture, maladaptiveness, disharmony, conflict, and lack of
consensus.
Chicago School of Criminology - Answer An ecological approach to explaining crime that
examines how social disorganization contributes to social pathology.
- used two sources of information: population stats and ethnographic data (people and their
cultures)
Ecological Theories - Answer a type of sociological approach that emphasizes demographics
(characteristics of population groups) and geographies )the mapped location of such groups
relative to one another) and that sees the social disorganization that characterizes delinquency
areas as a major cause of criminality and victimization
Shaw and Mckay - Answer -saw social disorganization as the inability of local communities to
solve common problems and believed that the degree of disorganization in a community was
largely predicated upon the extent of residential mobility and racial heterogeneity present in
that community.
Cultural Transmission - Answer The idea that delinquency is transmitted through successive
generations of people living in an area through the same process of social communication by
which languages, social roles, and attitudes are transmitted.
-Shaw and mckay
Park and Burgess - Answer Concentric Zone Theory
-Zone I, or the "loop," contained retail businesses and light manufacturing; Zone II, also referred
to as "zone in transition," surrounding the city center, was home to impoverished immigrant
groups, and was characterized by deteriorating houses and factories and abandoned buildings;
Zone III, also known as the "working-class" zone, contained the second group of immigrants
who escaped the poverty conditions of Zone II. Zone IV was occupied by middle-class citizens
with single-family homes; and Zone V, the suburbs, was called the "commuter zone." Park and
Burgess noticed that residents of the inner zones tended to migrate to outer zones as their
economic positions improved.
