Social Disorganization

Stepping into the city of Chicago, one would assume that the cities wealth would be equally distributed throughout the neighborhoods. Yet, this is not the case, one can easily distinguish which neighborhoods have wealth.  For example, in the city of Chicago, one of these neighborhoods is Lincoln Park.  The Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago provides the city with high-end stores, bars/restaurants and the zoo.  One can be confident when walking through the streets of this neighborhood as one would be surrounded by beautiful tall buildings and nice houses. These neighborhoods more often than not, surround Downtown Chicago and are one of the reasons why this area is typically, considered a safe place to be. 

As one begins to deviate away from the downtown area it becomes prevalent that these neighborhoods are strongly affected by social disorganization.  Some characteristics of social disorganization are poverty and weak social bonds. These neighborhoods are often poisoned with higher rates of delinquency and crime rates.  Stepping into these neighborhoods, one notices a lot of differences compared to the neighborhoods described before.  Upon stepping into these neighborhoods one notices rundown buildings and abandoned factories, among many other things.  If one takes the time to observe in these neighborhoods, witnessing acts of violence or criminal activity is not uncommon.

In the book ‘There Are No Kids Here” Lajoe is trying to raise her children in one of these neighborhoods and experiences many challenges because of this. The fact that they reside in a neighborhood filled with social disorganization affects the individuals in many ways.  These children are exposed to homicides at a very young age and often have higher rates of delinquency since the kids growing up in these neighborhoods lack strong social bonds with their families. It is often that you hear stories of children who fall into the neighborhood pressure.  As time progresses, children raised in these neighborhoods often times stop going to school and begin engaging in extracurricular activities such as drug dealing and gang banging.   One of the lines in the book that I feel accurately depicts the levels of criminal activity was when the teacher spoke about the scariest part of her day.  She stated that she was terrified walking to and from her car to the school because of the things that could happen.  She had to hide her paycheck in her bra in fear of it getting stolen. The younger kids in these neighborhoods often do not have something positive to look forward to or even have positive role models.  This reason is one of the main reasons why the children growing up in these neighborhoods often become victims of the streets. These neighborhoods also have very weak social ties.  One can tell the relationship neighbors have with each other just by observing.

 Where I live back home, I know my neighbors very well and they know my family as well. Having these kinds of relationships is beneficial and a step towards a safer community.  The book stated that often times, the neighbors would break into each other’s apartments in order to raid medicine cabinets as well as other things.  The presence of these social ties would hinder these kinds of actions from occurring as more and more individuals would be looking out for the welfare of each other.  These social ties would enable the use of programs such as neighborhood watch, something that is not very prevalent in these neighborhoods.

Growing up, I had programs in my school system designed to keep children out of trouble.  These programs were known as D.A.R.E AND G.R.E.A.T..  D.A.R.E. was focused around keeping the children informed about drugs and saying no.  G.R.E.A.T. was primarily focused on gang resistance education.  Both of these programs were aimed at improving the next generation and keeping children educated and out of trouble.  Often times these programs work when the children have the support of their peers and neighborhood.  This isn’t always the case when it comes down to the socially disorganized neighborhoods.  These programs often fail because the support is not there.  I know individuals who have grown up in these neighborhoods and hearing them tell stories of their childhood is absolutely terrifying.  I could never imagine having to look over my shoulder every second of every day that I decided to step foot outside. 

These neighborhoods are lacking many traits to be successful.  The differences you witness between the wealthier neighborhoods and those on the poverty stricken side are major.  There are many challenges that the residents of these neighborhoods have to face especially since it appears as if everything is designed to bring them down.