Social Ecology

In criminology and criminal justice, the “social ecology” perspective focuses on the interdependence between individuals and their physical, social, and cultural environments in order to understand crime. It views crime as an outgrowth of the ways in which individuals act in their various embedded environmental contexts - as such, crime is contextualized. This chapter first traces the historical development of social ecological perspectives for understanding crime, particularly within U.S.-based criminology. Next, it provides an overview of the methodological and statistical approaches used to study the social ecology of crime in contemporary criminology and criminal justice. The development of the social ecological perspectives began with the Chicago School scholars and has continued to the present day, with strong influences from social disorganization and environmental criminology theories. With qualitative, quantitative, and multilevel research, the social ecology approach to crime has received much attention by criminological and criminal justice scholars.