The things that occur in the Ida B. Wells housing projects are unimaginable. A lot of what I am going to be considering, comes from a story about a boy named Eric Morse. In 1994, two boys ages 10 and 11 threw five-year-old Eric Morse out of a fourteen-story window because he would not steal candy for them. This story gained national attention and was all over the news. A five-year-old murdered by a10 and 11 year-old? Why are children this young committing crimes that most adults would never even do? There are many theories that try to explain why this might have occurred, but it seems to me that two theories explain this problem very clearly. One of those theories is called social disorganization.
According to Clifford Shaw and Henry McKay, social disorganization is centered around three variables: poverty, residential mobility, and racial heterogeneity (Brown et al. 2001 pg. 310). Residential mobility refers to the high number of people moving into and out of the area. Racial heterogeneity refers to the mixture of different races and cultures. All of these three factors contribute to competing norms, values, and expectations that weaken controls on behavior. These three independent factors cause social disorganization, which can lead to crime. The first factor, poverty, is the most important. The idea is that, "poverty areas" are likely to have high rates of residential mobility and racial heterogeneity that make it difficult for those communities to avoid becoming socially disorganized.
Another side is that the local government does not spend any money to better their neighborhood. They cannot afford to build parks and other facilities to give an alternative to spending time in the streets. While being interviewed on the question of growing up in the Ida B. Wells housing projects, Vince Lane, former chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority states, "No supervised playgrounds, no activities.
