ABSTRACT
This chapter has looked at the construction of the 'problem community' and the different ways in which this problem has been perceived. Beginning with the early theorists of crime and community, working class neighbourhoods have been cast as socially disorganised. Some communities, as suggested, are differently organised, but this difference need not be perceived of as problematic. The problem community is therefore perceived as being made up of problematic individuals. The chapter explores the two claims: Industrialisation created a working class, and the industrial cities had to accommodate this newly created social group on a mass scale. In post-industrial societies, people are still left to contend with the legacy of industrialisation. Whereas early theorists thought the industrial city had destabilised the traditional social ordering of the countryside, the post-industrial city has been identified with a complete breakdown of order. It more closely investigates, which violent social transformations have been associated with increased criminality and disorder.
