Social relationships with families, peers, schools, jobs, criminal justice agencies, and the like may play an important role in shaping behavioral choices.  As a result, many delinquency theorists believe that elements of social life are responsible for kids getting involved in anti-social behaviors. Social disorganization theory focuses on the conditions within the urban environment that affect delinquency rates, such as socioeconomic conditions. Poverty undermines the basic stabilizing forces of the community (i.e., family, school, peers, and neighbors), rendering them weakened, attenuated, and ineffective. As a result, the ability of the community to control its inhabitants, or to assert informal social control, is damaged and frayed.
Gangs flourish in deteriorated neighborhoods with high levels of poverty, lack of investment, high unemployment rates, and population turnover. In contrast, cohesive communities develop collective efficacy: mutual trust, a willingness to intervene in the supervision of children, and the maintenance of public order.

• Prepare to engage in discussion on the following questions:
  • Given the broad social factors listed in the book, provide specific types of stressors and strains adolescents face.  How has technology played a role in some of these stressors?
  • Victims of bullying, whether traditional or cyber, often display some of the same emotions of isolation, frustration, hopelessness, and anger as inhabitants of a disorganized inner-city area. These are all signs of what sociologists call strain. What are some solutions you can offer to victims of bullying? 

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