 CHICAGO PERSPECTIVE CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE

Why name the Perspective Chicago? Critical Perspective

- The Chicago School needed answer for its exponentially - Holds the study of the political process is central to
growing problem of delinquency and crime. Thus, this became understanding deviance and social and notrol, this
a primary focus in the city of Chicago. emphasizes the role of elites and historical change.
- The critical perspective in deviance and social control is a
Chicago Perspective blend of three approaches: societal reaction theory, radical
- By Clifford Shaw and Henry D. Mckay criminology, and critical sociology.
- Also known as Social Disorganization Theory
- This perspective claimed that delinquency was not caused at Societal Reaction Theory
the individual level, but was considered to be normal response - People are not born “deviant”, whatever their physical, mental,
of normal individual to abnormal social conditions. and moral characteristics.
- There was an indirect loss in the ability to act communally and - The social definitions and systematic ways society punishes
individuals exhibited unrestricted freedom to express their and excludes those it defines as “different” marks such
dispositions and desires, often resulting in delinquent individuals and group as outsiders.
behaviors. - This approach focuses attention on the sources of official
labeling (in society, organizations, or small groups) and the
Social Disorganization Theory consequences of labeling for deviant and society.
- This is the consequences of a community’s inability to realize - It urges sociologist to take the side of oppressed persons and
common values and to solve the problems of its resident , groups, who are seen as needing the protection of the law
resulting in the breakdown of effective social control within against a discriminatory welfare and justice system.
that community, - It sometimes views state officials who “manufacture” and
“process” deviants as more culpable than the deviants they
punish
Shaw and McKay noted that neighborhoods with highest crime rates - It’s perspective toward social control is that regulatory
have at least three (3) common problems: institutions and organizations engage in excessive
1. Physical Dilapidation deviantizing.
2. Poverty - It urges there is an “over production” of deviant categories and
3. Higher level of ethnic and culture mixing persons (Spitzer) and an overuse of the criminal sanction
(packer)
Radical Criminology prejudice and discrimination, and the problems of
- Radical criminology goes beyond societal reaction theory by values in mass culture.
identifying the political economy as the source of criminal law  One criticism of the Frankfurt school was its tendency
deviant labeling. toward simplistic or unitary explanations, where a
- Radical criminologists have shown how political and economic single cause is claimed to be the source of social
institutions have increasingly become fused into a single disruption. In these analyses society becomes all
power system. powerful and the autonomy of the individual
- Radical criminology also emphasizes race, class, ethnic, age, disappears.
gender, and other significant social differences in the
deviantizing process. Marxian Influences
- It sees juvenile delinquency as a special case of status based - Critical theorists have honored Marxist theory for its analysis
on age grading. of early, entrepreneurial capitalism. However, they questioned
- Punishment focuses on minorities, and on children of the poor Marxism’s application to today’s society, which they call
and of single mothers. advanced capitalism.
- Marx and Engels emphasized that ideology was embedded in
Critical Sociology all social institutions, or organizational doctrines, and human
- Critical Sociology is an approach to sociology that examines sentiments. But their approach had been too deterministic.
society and seeks to change it. - Critical Sociologists, by contrast, consider the conditions
under which oppressed groups either comply or revolt. In
FRANKFURT SCHOOL considering how power elites stabilize and maintain
 Critical Sociology traces its tradition to Frankfurt school themselves, critical thinkers discovered the role of cooptation.
in Germany. This process is the integration of political minorities into the
 As early as 1920s, a group of scholars gathered to leadership or policy-making structure without essentially
address what they perceived as the major trends and altering the system.
dislocations in modern life.
 The Frankfurt School was a group of scholars known
for developing critical theory and popularizing the
dialectical method of learning by interrogating society’s
contradictions.
 Taking society as the unit of study, they raised
intriguing questions about the nature of authority and
power, and how these shaped social institutions and
organizations as well as personal sentiments (Arato &
Gebhardt)
 Their approach was twofold. First, they emphasized
changes in legal political, and economic onstituions.
Second, they examined social attitudes toward