ABSTRACT
The Chicago School is particularly known for its work in the early twentieth century when it hosted a variety of influential sociological perspectives, reflecting the collective research of visionary scholars affiliated with the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago. To Chicago School scholars, the city provided an ideal environment to explore human behaviour, social interaction and dynamic processes. Robert Park and Ernest Burgess, in particular, encouraged their students to perceive the city as a 'social laboratory' where they could carry out their research. Both Park and Burgess had backgrounds in human ecology, and applied concepts derived from plant and animal ecology to their observations of Chicago city life. Two other Chicago School researchers, Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, later adapted and applied Park and Burgess's concentric zone theory to the study of delinquency in their influential work Juvenile Delinquency in Urban Areas.
