Misperceived Neighborhood Values and Informal Social Control

Social disorganization theory explains the effects of neighborhood structure and culture on crime and delinquency. Within this perspective, the role of neighborhood informal social control is argued to be an important protective factor against many social problems. While a growing body of research supports the importance of informal social control, we still have limited understanding of its development. Of the research that does exist in this area, most examines structural processes supporting informal social control, while cultural aspects of communities have only rarely been examined. We further develop this limited body of research by drawing on the prevention literature that focuses on social norms and their misperceptions. Specifically, this study examines the role of pluralistic ignorance regarding neighborhood values on the likelihood of informal social control. The results are discussed in relation to social norms theory and their relevance for crime‐prevention strategies.     

Measuring community social organization: Sense of community as a mediator in social disorganization theory

The current study utilized an updated systemic model of social disorganization to investigate neighborhood effects on both positive and negative youth outcomes. Although empirical support for updated social disorganization models has increased in recent years, the field continues to rely too heavily on behavioral indicators of community social organization. Unfortunately, these measures do not assess the truly important social processes and dynamics that result in cohesive and supportive neighborhoods. It was proposed that sense of community (SOC) was a more valid, comprehensive, and applicable measure for the mediating variables in social disorganization theory. Results supported the hypothesis that SOC mediates the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on youth outcomes and implications for the field are discussed.     

Beyond the Social Production of Homicide Rates: Extending Social Disorganization Theory to Explain Homicide Case Outcomes

This paper examines the intersection of social disorganization at a community level with responses to crime. In contrast to other works examining the impact of social disorganization on the production of crime rates, we examine the role of social disorganization theory in responses to crime rates (i.e. the arrest and conviction of perpetrators of crime). In an effort to examine these dynamics, we use law enforcement data from Cleveland, Ohio to explore the role of social disorganization in the ability of police and the courts to respond to homicide cases. Such an examination suggests not only how far the law extends in community responses to homicide but also reveals an extension of social disorganization theory beyond its established role in explaining the production of crime rates.     

IMMIGRATION AND CRIME IN AN ERA OF TRANSFORMATION: A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF HOMICIDES IN SAN DIEGO NEIGHBORHOODS, 1980–2000*

Emerging research associated with the “immigration revitalization” perspective suggests that immigration has been labeled inaccurately as a cause of crime in contemporary society. In fact, crime seems to be unexpectedly low in many communities that exhibit high levels of the following classic indicators of social disorganization: residential instability, ethnic heterogeneity, and immigration. But virtually all research conducted to date has been cross-sectional in nature and therefore unable to demonstrate how the relationship between immigration and crime might covary over time. This limitation is significant, especially because current versions of social disorganization theory posit a dynamic relationship between structural factors and crime that unfolds over time. The current study addresses this issue by exploring the effects of immigration on neighborhood-level homicide trends in the city of San Diego, California, using a combination of racially/ethnically disaggregated homicide victim data and community structural indicators collected for three decennial census periods. Consistent with the revitalization thesis, results show that the increased size of the foreign-born population reduces lethal violence over time. Specifically, we find that neighborhoods with a larger share of immigrants have fewer total, non-Latino White, and Latino homicide victims. More broadly, our findings suggest that social disorganization in heavily immigrant cities might be largely a function of economic deprivation rather than forms of “neighborhood” or “system” stability.     

Community Safety and Social Policy

This article examines community safety policy. In many countries community safety has become a replacement discourse for situational crime prevention, although in some countries such as the UK, it too is threatened with replacement by the narrower concerns of crime reduction. Community safety represents the apparent merging of the concerns of criminal justice and social policy, specifically over questions of social inclusion and exclusion. Focusing in the main upon UK policy, but also drawing upon experience elsewhere, this article scrutinises the policy of community safety, arguing that while it offers an inclusionary vision of crime control, its practice may be something rather different. More specifically, and in common with the trajectory of much advanced liberal social policy, in practice community safety may have an exclusionary effect. Thus, while community safety may represent the convergence of social and criminal justice policies, it does so on neoliberal rather than welfare liberal terms. It also means that community safety has a closer connection to policies of punitive sovereignty – particularly sentencing policies of mass incarceration – than might often be assumed.     

INCARCERATION,SOCIAL CAPITAL,AND CRIME: IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY*

This study is a theoretical exploration of the impact of public social control on the functioning of local social controls. Set within the framework of social disorganization and systemic theory, the study argues that an overreliance on incarceration as a formal control may hinder the ability of some communities to foster other forms of control because they weaken family and community structures. At the ecological level, the side effects of policies intended to fight crime by controlling individual behavior may exacerbate the problems they are intended to address. Thus, these communities may experience more, not less, social disorganization.     

Sanctuary Policies and City-Level Incidents of Violence, 1990 to 2010

Despite media coverage of isolated incidents of violent crime perpetuated by undocumented immigrants in cities with sanctuary policies, there is scant systematic research on the relationships between the adoption of sanctuary policies, unauthorized immigration, and crime. We compile city-level data from official sources and use fixed-effects negative binomial regression to examine whether the adoption of city-level sanctuary policies and the concentration of unauthorized Mexican immigrants are associated with homicide and robbery incidents in 107 U.S. cities, across three decades. We find evidence that the adoption of sanctuary policies is associated with a reduction in robberies but not homicide. In contrast, an increase in the relative size of a city’s unauthorized Mexican immigrant population corresponds with a reduction in homicide; however, only in sanctuary cities. Lastly, shifts in violence during our study period are consistently related to social structural characteristics of cities, which are findings consistent with social disorganization theory.     

城市和谐的安全保障：犯罪预防战略措施及其整体优化

犯罪成型是一个发展过程,控制城市犯罪泛滥的预防措施也必须是一个发展过程。必须控制社区解体的速度以及社会成员特别是贫困群体等弱势主体对经济社会变迁的承受度。公民、城市公共场所的管理者、公司、企业、事业单位都有义务根据能力采取适当的情境型犯罪预防措施控制特色的犯罪行为。发展型、社区型、情境型犯罪预防战略措施优化升级的内在要求促使犯罪预防理论与实践思考控制犯罪的全新分析视角。     

Modeling violent crime rates: A test of social disorganization in the city of Tshwane, South Africa

Tests of social disorganization theory are commonplace in international criminological literature. Indeed a plethora of studies had emerged over the past seventy years examining and extending the theory throughout much of the developed world. The testing, however, of the landmark theory's key propositions in Africa in general, and South Africa in particular, is in its infancy. This study aimed to address this shortcoming by analyzing associations between various census measures of social disorganization and violent crime rates in the city of Tshwane, South Africa. Overall, marginal support was found for the social disorganization theory: violent crime in Tshwane was associated with certain measures of socioeconomic deprivation, and residential mobility. The study not only demonstrated the applicability of certain elements of Western criminological theory to contemporary urban South Africa, but also revealed important differences in the ecological dynamics of violent crime across differing cultural contexts.     

Resisting ‘progressive’ carceral expansion: lessons for abolitionists from anti-colonial resistance

This article documents a government-led strategy to more closely integrate policing with community-based ‘crime prevention’ programming in the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. These initiatives have targeted neighborhoods with large Indigenous populations. In this article I illustrate how community-level conflicts over responses to ‘crime’ are also sites of settler colonial conflict, and how settler colonial governance is reproduced and resisted through the governance of crime. Interviews with politicians, policy-makers, bureaucrats in the crime prevention branch of the provincial government, and directors and employees at community-based organizations suggest that the pursuit of the government strategy of integrated crime prevention and suppression has been more a project of attempting to ‘manage’ urban Indigenous people than serve their interests. As a contribution to abolitionist thought and theory, this article profiles sites of conflict between community police and community-based organizations over definitions of the ‘crime’ problem in city-center Winnipeg. These examples highlight a kinship between carceral abolitionist and decolonial politics.     

Unpacking collective efficacy: the relationship between social cohesion and informal social control

The investigation of social mechanisms within social disorganization theory has led to the concept of collective efficacy. Collective efficacy has typically been measured as a composite of social cohesion and informal control; however, more work remains to be done with respect to the measurement of informal control and the modeling of the relationship between cohesion and control. The present study addresses this issue by using multiple operationalizations of informal social control. Results suggest that respondents rely upon their ability to call the police as a method, by which they exercise informal control over their area of residence. Moreover, the cohesion and control scales are distinct from one another, which adds to the literature showing that they are better treated as separate scales. In regression models, cohesion emerges as largely unrelated to individuals’ propensity to intervene in neighborhood problems, but enhances their perceptions of their neighbors’ likelihood of intervention. Future research should continue investigating different types of informal control and each one’s relationship with cohesion. Policy recommendations include the need for police to be prepared to respond to a variety of neighborhood problems, many of which are not directly crime related but, nonetheless, have important implications for informal crime-control efforts.     

Community-level influences on individuals' social bonds,peer associations,and delinquency: A multilevel analysis

Social disorganization theory is usually considered a macro-level theory, and therefore has been used almost exclusively to explain variation in crime rates. Shaw and McKay, however, also applied their theory to explaining micro-level variation in social bonds, peer associations, and delinquency. Specifically, they argued that social bonds and peer associations actually mediated the influence of social disorganization on delinquency. Little empirical research has focused on this interpretation of their theory. In this study the connections between neighborhood-level social disorganization and individual-level social bonds, peer associations, and delinquency are explicated and tested empirically with multilevel data and hierarchical linear modeling. The results show that social disorganization significantly affects peer associations but not social bonds. In addition, the effect of social disorganization on delinquency is mediated fully by peer associations. Implications for future research on social disorganization theory are discussed.     

The Complexity of Hate Crime and Bias Activity: Variation across Contexts and Types of Bias

Are racially-motivated hate crimes, non-criminal bias incidents, and general forms of crime associated with the same structural factors? If so, then social disorganization, a powerful structural correlate of general crime, should predict rates of hate incidents. However, tests of social disorganization’s effects on racially-motivated hate crime yield inconsistent results. This study uses data from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) to explore such inconsistencies. Specifically, we assess the effects of social disorganization across contexts and types of bias motivation using bias incidents over 12 years. The results suggest that (a) social disorganization, particularly residential instability, is robustly correlated with rates of both hate crime and other prejudicial conduct, and that (b) the interactive effects of social disorganization help explain variations in incident rates by motivation type. Specifically, anti-black incidents are most frequent in unstable, homogeneous (i.e. white) and advantaged communities, while anti-white incidents are most frequent in unstable, disadvantaged communities.     

CONTEXTUALIZING COMMUNITY CRIME CONTROL: RACE,GEOGRAPHY, AND CONFIGURATIONS OF CONTROL IN FOUR COMMUNITIES*

Criminology and urban sociology have long‐standing interests in how neighborhoods and communities respond to and control crime. We build on the literature on social disorganization, collective efficacy, and new parochialism to develop a framework that explains how and why communities respond differently to crime. We draw on more than 2 years of comparative ethnographic data and 56 resident and stakeholder interviews on responses to crime in four communities in two states. We find that the intersections of racial composition, geography, and crime narratives in each place contributed to distinct community responses to crime. By analyzing these dynamics across the four sites, we propose three types of public–parochial partnerships that communities use to respond to crime: public alliances that rely primarily on public forms of control, tentative public–parochial partnerships that rely on tenuous connections with public institutions, and grassroots engagement with public institutions. We explain the emergence of these three approaches as patterned responses rooted in characteristics of local contexts, including racial composition and geographic isolation.     

关于完善我国未成年人犯罪社会矫正问题的建议

未成年人犯罪作为全球性问题一直广受关注,虽然在实践中贯彻以"教育为主、惩罚为辅"的原则,在我国已经取得了较好的社会效果,但从建立和谐社会的视角来看,还是远远不够的.因此,本文结合国内外未成年人犯罪防治及矫正的具体做法,就如何建立未成年人犯罪社会矫正制度提出一些粗浅的建议,以期对我国正在开展的防治未成年人重新犯罪社会矫正试点工作有所帮助.     

Examining the relationship between routine activities theory and social disorganization: An analysis of property crime victimization

A property crime victimization survey was conducted of households in both high and tow crime neighborhoods in one southern city. A response rate of 68.5% was obtained. The study tested the premises of both the routine activities and social disorganization theories as they contribute to the likelihood of property crime victimization at the individual level. It was found that routine activities theory explained 28% of the property crime variance in the socially disorganized area (high crime) while only explaining 11% of the same variance in the low crime area. Separate measurements were used to establish the level of social disorganization in the two geographical areas. The beta coefficients reveal that in the high crime area, those most likely to be property crime victims are white, single homeowners who are not at home from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., who have relatives living in their neighborhoods, and who interact with their neighbors. These findings lend marginal support to the routine activities model.     

DIRECTLY INTERVENE OR CALL THE AUTHORITIES? A STUDY OF FORMS OF NEIGHBORHOOD SOCIAL CONTROL WITHIN A SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION FRAMEWORK*

Informal social control is a central concept in the contemporary social disorganization literature, and much attention has been directed at examining community characteristics related to variation in the quantity of informal social control across communities. However, considerably less attention has been paid to variation in forms of informal social control. This study examines the extent to which neighborhood characteristics are related to residents’likelihood of using two different forms of informal social control: direct informal social control (i.e., through direct intervention) and indirect informal social control (i.e., through mobilizing formal authorities). Data for this study are based on surveys of residents in 66 neighborhoods. The analysis uses hierarchical modeling to examine whether neighborhood characteristics central to contemporary social disorganization theory have similar effects on these two forms of neighborhood social control. Findings indicate that social ties increase the likelihood of direct informal social control but not indirect informal social control, whereas social cohesion and trust decreases indirect informal social control but does not have a significant effect on direct informal social control. Faith in the police is not found to affect either form of informal social control. These findings are discussed in terms of current issues in contemporary social disorganization theory.     

Incivilities in nonmetropolitan communities: The effects of structural constraints, social conditions, and crime

Guided by social disorganization theory and the emerging concept of collective efficacy, this study used three sources of data, including community surveys administered to 1,125 citizens nested in thirty-one residential units, and hierarchical modeling techniques to examine the effects of structural features and collective social processes, net of property crime (i.e., burglary) and citizen-level sociodemographic characteristics, on perceived incivilities (i.e., signs of physical decay and social disorder) in nonmetropolitan communities. The results showed that respondents living in economically disadvantaged geographic areas were significantly more likely to perceive their immediate surroundings in more negative terms (i.e., higher levels of incivilities). Respondents living in residential units characterized by higher levels of collective efficacy (i.e., a composite measure consisting of both cohesion and control), however, reported significantly fewer incivility problems. When assessed separately, social cohesion partially mediated the effects of economic disadvantage. The findings indicated that social disorganization theory generalizes to less densely populated, nonmetropolitan communities.     

Assessing the impact of casino gambling on crime in Mississippi

The introduction of legalized gambling into a community has generated a great deal of hubris regarding concomitant criminality. While Las Vegas has long been synonymous with organized crime, the recent focus has been on the connection between traditional crime and legalized gambling. The conventional wisdom among opponents of this new source of revenue is that casinos attract many undesirables to the community, thereby increasing crime and social disorganization. Routine activities theory would suggest that with increased numbers of tourists, more opportunities for crime will exist. To test this proposition, the frequency of crime before and after the introduction of legalized gambling in Biloxi, Mississippi was examined. Larcey-theft and motor vehicle theft were the only categories of crime to show statistically significant change. Robbery and aggravated assault increased, while murder and rape declined, although the change was not statistically significant for any category of violent crime.     

Safety in Stockholm’s Underground Stations: An Agenda for Action

The objective of this article is to propose an agenda for interventions to prevent or reduce crime and disorder at underground stations in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. The article first reports the nature, the levels, and the patterns of crime and disorder across time and space. Different types of crime are analyzed and specific conclusions are drawn for each type of crime which relate to the suggested interventions presented in this article. Findings lend weight to principles of situational crime prevention to improve security in transport nodes, with overlaps with routine activity and social disorganization theories. Intervention measures comprehend suggestions on both environmental design related changes and more complex social aspects regarding the reduction of crime at transport nodes. Suggestions for interventions at Stockholm’s underground stations, as presented here, constitute an illustration of what can be achieved with situational crime prevention principles; however, they may not be regarded as a “one-size-fits-all” solution to the demands and challenges of safety in transport nodes elsewhere.