Social Disorganization Theory
There are myriad examples in the literature of how the social disorganization theory links street crimes with ecological themes in certain tough neighborhoods. The sociological aspect of the theory -- wretched socioeconomic conditions and mean, gang-dominated streets offer more of an accounting for crime or delinquency than the individuals who commit crimes -- has been tested and referenced as valid by numerous scholars and researchers. The theory seems to neatly apply in certain urban environments, which perhaps explains why neighbors in collaboration with law enforcement have implemented Neighborhood Watch and Community Oriented Policing programs to control crime. But is strengthening the social networks in a crime-infested neighborhood really the one true answer to bringing down the crime rate? Do these programs, which do have a positive effect, really reach down into the core of the social problem? While they may protect innocent residents in some instances and help police make arrests, the result is often superficially punitive. This paper explores avenues that could be more beneficial to tough neighborhoods, lawbreaking, and the rule violations in public schools in those neighborhoods -- including creative uses of restorative justice and family group conferences.
Restorative Justice, Family Group Conferences, and New Zealand
There are many towns and cities in America in which social workers, community leaders and public school officials embrace the idea of restorative justice through family group conferences (FGC) -- also known as family group decision making. It is one aspect of restorative justice, which seeks to bring closure to victims and visit thoughtful sanctions upon the offender on a level that eschews most bureaucratic pretensions. Restorative practices in fact are used all over the world, and in the U.S., it is being implemented in high schools as a way to "replace punishment with conversation" (PBS, 2014). But before critiquing and reviewing the ways in which restorative justice is having a healing role in conflict situations (that in many cases were brought on by social disorganization dynamics), it is worthy to look at how restorative justice and family group conferences actually were originated.
The fact that historically European colonialism has brought discrimination and hegemony into the cultures of native peoples is an historical fact, but it is instructive in terms of exploring how restorative justice began in New Zealand. A creative kind of hegemony was perpetrated on the Maori, the indigenous peoples in New Zealand, when Europeans arrived in the early 19th century. There is no doubt that the British Crown wanted to take control of New Zealand, so they basically tricked the Maori into signing "The Treaty of Waitangi," which the Maori chiefs believed would allow that "…their own authority would be left in place" (www.tcara.govt.nz). The Treaty left the Maori with the impression that they would remain the true owners of the land, but that simply wasn't the case.
But in fact, the Treaty gave an enormous amount of authority to the British colonialists and through the years British immigrants arrived in great numbers and the land once tilled and owned by the Maori was in effect annexed by the British. Over the years the Maori culture became more marginalized and was relegated to a kind of cultural inferiority; it was believed that the Maori had a "genetically inferior intelligence" and that many Maori children that broke the law did so because of their lack of intelligence (Harris, 2010). "Maori were constructed as a deficient race" and their living standards and ways of believing were "pathologized and deemed immoral, heathen, idle, unclean and disorderly," Harris explains in an essay in the book, Breaking the Mold of School Instruction and Organization: Innovative and Successful Practices for the Twenty-First Century.
The policy of discrimination and hegemony resulted in a kind of situation that could be defined through use of the social disorganization theory; young Maori boys, especially, were seen as "at risk" (because they lived in poor neighborhoods) and were caught up in a law enforcement juggernaut and thrown in jail for minor violations. That was the terrible social crisis that led progressive political leaders to write and put into law "The Children, Young Persons and their Families Act" (CYPFA) in 1989. It was the revolutionary key that unlocked the door to a new kind of justice for Maori people. It was a new and better way of handling lawbreaking by young people and it meant that arbitrary rulings from the European courts could no longer be coldly handed down when a child breaks the law.
The Spread of Restorative Justice round the World and in High Schools
PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES AFFECTING African-American STUDENTS PSYCHOSOCIAL ISSUES AFFECTING African-American STUDENTS "They never want to hear what I have to say…it doesn't matter who started a fight, or what a teacher said to you that made you mad. You might have something heavy going on at home but no one asks. They're not interested. They just want you out of the school." 17-year-old 11th grade African-American female student, NYC (Sullivan, 2007, p. iii). In New York City, one of
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