Which researchers are most often credited with developing the ecological approach to crime and neighborhoods?

Which researchers are most often credited with developing the ecological approach to crime and neighborhoods?

• A. Park and Burgess
• B. Durkheim and Weber
• C. Merton and Cohen
• D. Sutherland and Cressey

Answer: (A)

The ecological approach to crime and neighborhoods focuses on how the structure and dynamics of a city shape where crime happens. Park and Burgess, early Chicago School scholars, laid out an urban ecology model in which the city grows in concentric zones around the central business district. Each zone has different residents, resources, and levels of social control, so neighborhood conditions—poverty, housing turnover, ethnic mix, and the strength of informal networks—shape patterns of delinquency and crime. Areas in transition, with high instability and weak collective efficacy, tend to see more crime, which explains why crime concentrates in certain neighborhoods. Shaw and McKay later expanded this work by linking crime patterns directly to these ecological conditions, but Park and Burgess are the figures most often credited with developing the ecological approach itself. The other pairs are associated with different theories—Durkheim and Weber with broad sociological ideas, Merton and Cohen with strain and delinquency theories, Sutherland and Cressey with differential association and related concepts.

The ecological approach to crime and neighborhoods focuses on how the structure and dynamics of a city shape where crime happens. Park and Burgess, early Chicago School scholars, laid out an urban ecology model in which the city grows in concentric zones around the central business district. Each zone has different residents, resources, and levels of social control, so neighborhood conditions—poverty, housing turnover, ethnic mix, and the strength of informal networks—shape patterns of delinquency and crime. Areas in transition, with high instability and weak collective efficacy, tend to see more crime, which explains why crime concentrates in certain neighborhoods. Shaw and McKay later expanded this work by linking crime patterns directly to these ecological conditions, but Park and Burgess are the figures most often credited with developing the ecological approach itself. The other pairs are associated with different theories—Durkheim and Weber with broad sociological ideas, Merton and Cohen with strain and delinquency theories, Sutherland and Cressey with differential association and related concepts.