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.
