ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book intends to provide a context for understanding the writing and importance of Social Sources of Delinquency. It revisits Ruth Rosner Kornhauser's critique of strain and cultural deviance models through the lens of social disorganization theory. The book discusses the "strength of control theory". It considers the influence of "cultural disorganization". The book examines systemic ties and collective efficacy theory—a perspective that is a clear child of the Kornhauser perspective. It explores the interconnection between social disorganization and crime-event opportunity. The book shows how legal cynicism—a form of attenuated culture rooted in concentrated disadvantage—underlies inner-city crime. It examines potential causal factors either dismissed or neglected by Ruth Kornhauser. The book explores two themes that are at the center of Ruth Rosner Kornhauser's Social Sources of Delinquency: the unimportance of motivation and the importance of community control.
