Henry D. McKay

Henry D. McKay was an American sociologist and criminologist, best known for his collaboration with Clifford R. Shaw in developing the Social Disorganization Theory. As a key representative of the Chicago School of Sociology, McKay played a foundational role in establishing ecological and community-based approaches to understanding crime and delinquency. His work combined empirical rigor with a commitment to social reform and community engagement.

Together with Shaw, McKay developed and empirically tested the Social Disorganization Theory, which posits that crime is closely linked to the structural conditions of neighborhoods—especially poverty, residential instability, and ethnic heterogeneity. Their landmark study Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas (1942) demonstrated how social disorganization weakens community structures of informal control, thus fostering higher crime rates. McKay was also a key figure in the implementation of the Chicago Area Project (CAP), one of the first large-scale community-based delinquency prevention programs. His work continues to influence urban sociology, criminological theory, and policy-making related to neighborhood crime prevention.