Ecological theories of criminal behavior:
Social disorganization
Ecological deviance

Could this happen to you? Assuming I would live in a coastal town (I won’t) and assuming I wouldn’t have evacuated (I would have done everything in my power to do so), would I be looting and behaving criminally? I am not talking about the people stealing food, water and diapers. I am talking about the gangs of people trying to break into the Children’s Hospital to steal drugs, breaking into office buildings to steal computers and shooting at anyone who tries to stop them. At what point did survival instinct become something much more dangerous? We are safe in East TN but people are already panicking about a gas shortage. Will people be shooting each other over a tank of gas this hot, holiday weekend? Every sociologist knows the old line that “Murder rates go up when people eat more ice cream”.

A 2002 speech to the UN addressed disasters in areas affected by poverty.