ABSTRACT
Criminologists Clifford Shaw and Henry D. McKay developed the social disorganization theory in 1942, but it is still used today to predict youth violence and crime. The theory behind social disorganization theory is that an individual's physical and social environments are primarily responsible for the choices they make. The theory of social disorganization states a person's physical and social environments are primarily responsible for the behavioral. Criminologists and practitioners are conducting research on the relationship between economic deprivation and social disorganization when attempting to explain the origins of youth violence. The basic premise of social disorganization theory is that crime occurs when community relationships and local institutions fail or are absent. Using spatial maps to determine the residential locations of juveniles referred to Chicago, Illinois, courts, Shaw and McKay discovered that rates of crime were not evenly distributed across time and space in the city.
