Large scale disasters challenge the orderly functioning of the social system and control of deviance in a social system. Hurricane Andrew presents an immediate situation in which to examine the breakdown, maintenance, or re-organization of social control. This project will explore the impact of the hurriance on law and informal social control in the Miami area. Observations and interviews with law enforcement officials and residents will be conducted in areas of major impact from the hurricane. The selected sites will provide variations in class and ethnicity of the affected populations and degree of destruction in the affected areas. Supplemental interviews will be conducted with University of Florida students whose homes are in the hurricane-affected areas. The research is guided by Black's theory of the behavior of law and routine activities theory of crime. The aim is to explore the interaction for formal and informal control and the extent to which social control breaks down or is maintained under disaster conditions. Not only will many questions of theoretical significance to understanding social control be explored but the research has immediate practical implications for policy and planning in the wake of such disasters.
