ABSTRACT
The Chicago School took as its central dilemma the problem of order in an industrialized society. In this respect it shared the concerns of European thinkers at the turn of the century who saw the decline of community and the order it produced as their central dilemma. Crime within the theoretical orientation is the direct result of the pressures of city life. The solution to the crime problem posited by the Chicago scholars draws upon their general theory of urbanization, social control, and social disorganization. The prevention of crime is a matter of working through and with local people and institutions to strengthen the community's capacity to enforce "values consistent with the standards of conventional society". "Society has an opportunity to discover and encourage forces which will make the local community, independently effective in dealing with its own problems". Crime could be prevented if the community changed itself. The destabilizing force of urbanization could be mitigated by local action.
