Cultural Deviance Theory: Minneapolis

This theory reminds me a lot of what is going on with the riots in Minneapolis today. According to Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, whom investigated the migration of southern African Americans and eastern European Americans to Chicago and other cities. They notice most of these immigrants were poorly educated and many did not speak English. The poor citizens were left behind in the run down cities, as cities expanded to accommodate the flood of people and many wealthy citizens moved out to the suburbs. Shaw and McKay thought that social conditions in neighborhoods caused delinquency, this is what sociologist call Cultural Deviance Theory. They found that in Chicago crime was most severe in the center of the city and the area immediately surrounding it. It decreased as they looked further away from the city center. After 30 years, they found out that because circumstances of poverty remained, even after moving out, therefore, the same findings occurred.

The following findings from Shaw and McKay determined four assumptions from their research and I consider them to be prevalent today:

1. Run down areas create social disorganization. The diversity of cultures and languages fosters frictions based on these differences;

2. Social disorganization  fosters cultural conflict. Rapid social change creates normative ambiguity.

3. Cultural conflict allows delinquency to flourish; children observe both conventional and criminal values. Criminals who are successful pass their knowledge on to their children, who then pass it along to others;

4. Allowed to flourish, delinquency becomes a career.