StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Urban Sociology - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
According to the Broken Window theory one problem can be solved easily before it becomes a big problem. It means to solve a problem in its initial occurrence is much easier rather than waiting to solve a problem when it becomes a big problem. …
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER92.3% of users find it useful
Urban Sociology
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Urban Sociology"

1 (a What is 'broken windows' theory According to the Broken Window theory one problem can be solved easily before it becomes a big problem. It means to solve a problem in its initial occurrence is much easier rather than waiting to solve a problem when it becomes a big problem. As the problem becomes big & big it is very hard to solve the problem and also the control the reoccurrence of the problem. With this example we can easily came to know the exact definition of the broken window theory: Suppose we are having a house in an area outside the city, and due to some reason we are not living in that house and no one is taking care of this house. After some time we have seen that the lock on the main door was broken & the door is open. Due to lack of time we are not able to repair the lock & the door remain open. After some time we found the glasses fixed on windows are also broken and the floor of the house is full of waste material. Time to time the condition of the house became worst. The material inside the house was theft and every thing was broken within a short span of time. If the lock of the door was repaired in time then definitely there will not be such damage in the house. So the broken window theory clearly state that if we take action initially then we can prevent big damage and crime. For this State of New Jersey announced a "Safe and Clean Neighborhoods Program designed to improve the quality of community life in twenty-eight cities. According to this program, police officer should move in the city without vehicle means they need to move on foot to minimize crime. The objective is to secure the citizen. Citizens in the foot patrol areas had a more favorable opinion of the police than did those living elsewhere. And officers walking beats had higher morale, greater job satisfaction, and a more favorable attitude toward citizens in their neighborhoods than did officers assigned to patrol cars. (b.) Compare this with Jacobs' ideas about deterring crime. Jacob found the relationship between the environmental factors and the people. Jacob found how physical & social urban factor affect the life of people. Jacob discovered how environmental factors cause prevention of crime. Jacob hypothesized that urban residential crime could be prevented by reducing conditions of anonymity and isolation in that area. Jacob thought that crime rate is increasing due to attitude of the people towards their neighbors. Even neighbors do not recognize each others. That's why they do not know whether the stranger entering into the society is a member of society or not. Jocb stated that high levels of natural surveillance created a safe environment. According to Jacob one of our best protections against crime is to live in a community where neighbors watch out for each other and stand ready to call the police or to intervene directly where they spot a criminal. (c.) Explain Duneier's criticism of the broken windows theory as applied to the Greenwich Village vendors and panhandlers he studied. Greenwich vendors & panhandlers were first studied by Jane Jacobs in 1961, after that she wrote a book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities, which represented Greenwich Village sidewalk interaction as the ideal for what makes up a "great" American city. Duneier revisited the Jacobs principal by went back to the neighborhood. On the sidewalk, he studied the vendors who are not having houses, scavengers, and panhandlers. While side walking he found that the people are filled with illegality, personal defect, and shame and also a world of mutual support, struggles for respectability, ingenuity, and resilience. Duneier's main agenda was to understand the ways in which "moral" behavior and "decency" affects the crime. He also found that the sidewalk was quite different than it was when Jacobs described it, when "eyes and ears upon the street" were presumed to make sidewalk life safe and comfortable. His method was participant observation, and he worked as a magazine scavenger and street vendor on and off during more than five years. He developed and systematically employed an extended place method for expanding the boundaries of the traditional neighborhood study. (d.) Describe the alternative 'fixed windows' theory that Duneier proposes. Duneier proposed fixed window theory, for reducing the crime done by scavenger and panhandlers. According to this theory crime can be prevented if the problem can be rectified initially before it becomes the big problem. Suppose a window of a house is broken, then it is much easier to repair or fix the broken window rather than repairing all the broken windows. It means if we fix the broken window, then the chances of breaking the other window is very less. It is the behavior of the panhandlers and scavengers to destroy the thing completely if there is no one to care for that thing. Another important aspect of broken windows theory is the almost complete dismissal of the various social causes of crime, so well documented by social science research during the past 100 years. Many supporters of broken windows theory often display contempt for sociological theories of crime, with derisive statements, such as referring to such theories as "root causes" theories. Kelling and Sousa (2001: 2, emphasis in the original) make the following point as they respond research that questions the value of certain police policies. By using the fixed window theory the official crime rate drop significantly in New York City, with murder decreasing by 72 percent between 1990 and 1998, while total violent crime went down by 51 percent. More specifically, in New York City two main factors were alleged to have caused the drop in crime: (1) changes in police tactics and (2) greater use of incarceration. In the case of the former, it was NYPD's "strict crackdown on nuisance offenses, and its use of computer-drawn maps to reveal local hot spots and patterns of criminal activity". There was also a new "corporate-style devolution of responsibility by headquarters to precinct commanders" who were given the main responsibility to "show results" (Karmen, 2001). They also began using a new form of crime mapping called "Compstat," a computer system introduced in 1994 that provides data for each precinct on arrests, complaints and other information about crime. It was claimed to have been part of the reason for the drop in crime in New York City.So the fixed window theory's main objective is to reduce the crime rate. 5. Based on your reading of Sidewalk, critique (positively or negatively) Baltimore's "feeding meters to help the homeless" plan (described in the following New York Times article). Baltimore is a nonprofit group which is urging the public to give money to help homeless people. For this they installed recycled parking meters in the route where most of the tourist and panhandlers visit. Drop a coin in the meter, and the needle jumps from "Despair" to "Hope." But no matter whether it is a nickel or a quarter - or how many coins are tossed into a meter - hope flashes for only a few seconds before the needle drops to despair. The money in the recycled parking meters, which are painted green and blue goes to Baltimore Homeless Services, the arm of the city Health Department that provides shelter and treatment programs for homeless people. Analysis or Critique of Baltimore's "Feeding meters to help Homeless Plan" The positive points of the Baltimore's "feeding meters to help homeless" plan is that the money donated by the public is going in hand of the panhandlers who really need houses & shelters. Instead of giving money directly to panhandlers the donators are very happy to give it through feeding meter to ensure the productive use of the donated money. Because it is not necessary that all panhandlers are not having houses. Some of them are having houses. So official should work on the analysis of the panhandlers who are not having houses or shelters. They should make a list of actual panhandlers. Officials in Philadelphia started a campaign to get homeless people off the streets in the late '90s, committing $5.6 million for housing and treatment programs. Now the city spends about $17 million a year on homeless services and the number of people sleeping on the street has been cut by two-thirds. The negative point of the Baltimore's "Feeding meters to help homeless" plan is that collection of money from the feeding meters. It requires recruitment of manpower to collect money from feeding meters on daily basis. And also the control on the manpower should be required, so that money should reach in the right hand only. References: 1.RelativeResourceManager;JSESSIONID=d5qRLLVB6t7PfBtyp3Zt8y2GQn48h3QmQVTCp27tqVlKZmvH4K69!-703170243!w 2.janejabobs.pdf 3.RelativeResourceManager;JSESSIONID=R2krLQ1hf9k1vbJyvZXMBvtQty2lHQ660nPSs12Jt61P3H7R8F0V!-703170243!w Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Urban Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Urban Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1506159-urban-sociology
(Urban Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
Urban Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1506159-urban-sociology.
“Urban Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/miscellaneous/1506159-urban-sociology.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Urban Sociology

Cultural Diversity in New York City

Urban Sociology is a discipline that deals with the social aspect of city lives and the effect of different communities on society.... Contemporary Urban Sociology also caters to the question of political and economic analysis of a particular region or community under study.... As stated by Flanagan and famous in the field of sociology, Max Weber believes that urban cities are dependent upon marketplaces (Flanagan, 1993).... It is through the study of economic changes taking place across the globe that one can evaluate the variety of urban communities that are born and governed....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Concepts and Theories of the Academic Discussion of the City

oncepts and theories on Urban Sociology are mainly derived from works of sociologists such as George Simmel, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Park Burgess, Lowis Wirth, Tonnies, and Redfield.... Sociologists, such as David Riesman, claimed that urban cities were the places where dwellers were more likely to suffer loneliness irrespective of the high numbers of people living in the urban areas.... An additional group felt that sustainable urban development was crucial in improving the living standards of city dwellers....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Urban Sociology-Map Project

Urban Sociology-Map Project In most cases, the richest people live in areas where the standards of living are higher than in the areas where the poor people live.... In most cases, the richest people live in areas where the standards of living are higher than in the areas where the poor people live....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Racial and ethnic Discrimination

In its basic definition, Urban Sociology is all about the study of life from a sociological perspective focusing on the interaction of people in a metropolitan setting.... Racial and ethnic Discrimination In its basic definition, Urban Sociology is all about the study of life from a sociological perspective focusing on the interaction of people in a metropolitan setting.... They are the sociologists who pioneered the understanding of Urban Sociology....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Economic and Social Inequality in the United States and the Use of Urban Sociology in the Effectively Tackling of these Challenges

As such, although economic and social inequalities fundamentally have a number of key differences between them Economic and Social Inequality in the United States and the Use of Urban Sociology in the Effectively Tackling of these Challenges The general rate of inequality in the United States has been noted to be gradually increasing at an alarming rate.... Urban Sociology is therefore a very important course for me as a student of political economy because it will help me in understanding how social structures develop naturally and how they can be assessed and solved....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

The Major Problem Affecting Pilsen Community and the Solutions of This Problem

The history of poverty in Pilsen community owes itself to the influx of immigrants to Chicago in 1990s, most of whom were illegal, and the changes that occurred in urban economies as a result of housing boom that took place in the 1990s.... The thesis statement this paper would be holding is that the state should be involved through economic liberalization and provision of capital; social amenities and technology to enable people of Pilsen community to improve their lives....
4 Pages (1000 words) Thesis

Urbanization and Urban Sociologists

n Urban Sociology, urbanization is of great significance due to various reasons.... he social problems that came up with urbanization have virtually persisted to date and this justifies why urbanization is still a topic worth considering in Urban Sociology.... The new Urban Sociology.... The history of urbanization in sociology gives an insight into how the societies have transformed over time, the impacts of those transformations and how they influence the current state....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Urban Sociology - Sonoma County

This paper "Urban Sociology - Sonoma County" focuses on the Bay area which is ethnically diverse areas in the United States.... Sonoma County is a county in the bay area.... People in Sonoma County are a mix of race, social status, and ethnic composition.... One finds people of different social permutations....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us