Fourth Blog Response

• Use your notes on Sampson's sixth chapter and the article you found that, in your view, either affirms or challenges Sampson's thesis about the appearance of disorder. Describe your reaction to both in specific detail and link the article you chose to your blog entry, so that others in the class can look it up. If possible, describe how you might use this material in a way relevant to one or both of your emphasis disciplines.

The appearance of disorder in many cases led to an overall "feel" of the neighborhood being either high or low-crime areas. Sampson compared a few different points of disorder such as Socially perceived disorder and concurrently observed disorder. The two types of disorder compared looked at how the citizens either living in or outside of, but often working in the city, viewed their neighborhood as either being high or low on the disorder scale. At the same time as the survey, Sampson was comparing the actual rate of disorder that was going on such as the crime rates, poverty level, etc. and making observations between the two. I find it interesting that Sampson points out the importance to remember context when using comparisons between social disorder, and explains how there may be perceived disorder in one area that would not even be noticed in another.

Something that makes me think of Sampson's viewing of social disorder reminds me of the drive to California from St. George. Growing up in St. George, there are many people in the community that take great care of their homes, their yards, and the surrounding areas. It was not commonplace growing up to see a McDonald's bag on the side of the road, or someone's discarded drink container thrown out the window when they were done using it. As you make the trek to Vegas, the feeling of community solidarity and cleanliness changes to a feeling of city life where their is trash and seeming decay everywhere, although those from Las Vegas probably wouldn't give it a second thought. The context of where the decay is, along with the people who are viewing it and how they see it is key when measuring perceived disorder.

In an outside article, authors Catherine E. Ross and John Mirowsky from the Ohio State University develop their own scale for perceived social disorder and find interesting distinctions between physical and social disorder. In both of these articles it seems that there is a correlation between perceived and actual disorder. Often those people living in the neighborhoods that are being viewed know the most about their neighborhoods, whether they are good or bad, high or low crime, etc. And it seems that their perception of the neighborhood, coupled with the perception of outsiders in how they view the area is often fairly accurate when pointing to things such as crime rates, drug use, and poverty.
http://uar.sagepub.com/content/34/3/412.abstract

The two disciplines that I am studying using my Interdisciplinary degree are Biology and Criminal Justice. It is interesting that the concept of profiling in Criminal Justice is very similar to this idea that disorder can be seen through "broken windows" in a neighborhood or area. Often those in the field are taught different techniques for determining situations, and reading criminals so they know how to best assess and successfully command a situation.

• "City life is made possible by an 'ordering' of the urban populace in terms of appearance and spatial location such that those within the city could know a great deal about one another by simply looking," - Lynn Lofland.