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The level of divorce has become a standard covariate in macro-level studies of violent crime. The rationale for including this variable is typically grounded in social disorganization theory, although the alleged processes underlying the relationship are often referred to fleetingly, if at all. We review the underlying logic for a divorce/violent crime relationship, distinguishing between the classic formulation and the view advanced by "neo-" social disorganization theorists. We suggest that the two variants differ with respect to inferences about stability or change in the effects of divorce across different historical periods. We then assess the degree to which the effects of divorce rates on robbery and homicide rates have changed with data for a sample of large U. S. cities during the decennial years between 1960 and 2000, a period of sharply rising divorce rates for the nation at large and of growing acceptance of divorce. The results of multivariate seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) analyses differ by offense. For robbery, the effects of divorce consistently decline over the period. The effects of divorce on homicide, in contrast, are fairly stable. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their classic study, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (1920), Thomas and Znaniecki state that "social disorganization is not an exceptional phenomenon limited to certain periods or certain societies; some of it is found always and everywhere." The purpose of the present paper is to assess the applicability of social disorganization as it relates to a domain that has been predominately excluded from past analyses. Specifically, the present study makes use of data from the Montana Prevention Needs Assessment Survey (1998) to assess the degree to which aggregate measures of community structure and individually perceived measures of community process have an impact on the outcome of delinquent behavior. In doing so, it makes a unique contribution in its use of aggregate and individual-level data, and its application of a predominately urban theory to a rural context. The study finds that both community structure and process do have a statistically significant impact in the present data. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literature on the phenomenon of urban delinquency has linked plausible explanations for its causation to characteristics found in criminological theories such as anti-social behavior, social disorganization, differential association, rational choice, and general strain. However, there is an emerging sociological perspective referred to as "oppositional culture," that also provides a plausible explanation for the existence and causation of urban delinquency. Through an analysis of crime, unemployment, and poverty data, this paper examines the development of the urban "oppositional culture," its delinquency label, and what impact it has on policing practices and policy in urban communities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence against police officers is often understood as either an extension of normal violent behavior that can be understood in terms of social disorganization and structural disadvantage or as a result of political subordination that can be understood through conflict theory. While these theories are undoubtedly important in explaining some of the violence against police officers, they tend to ignore police department organizational characteristics and/or assume that these characteristics have a minimized role in explaining violence against police officers. Using data from the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted Records and Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, this study attempts to analyze violence against police officers by examining the influence of police organizational characteristics on violence against police officers while controlling for structural characteristics that previous research has found to be important. It is argued that by controlling for structural factors, any significant organizational effects may reveal mechanisms through which police departments may better protect their officers and improve community relations. Particular emphasis is placed on the impact of community policing initiatives and on the demographic composition of police departments. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the globe, rural communities and small towns are undergoing fundamental and at times rapid change. Within some rural areas of the US, the decline of the family farm and the housing development of the country side race along. In addition, the Wal-Marting of rural America and the demise of locally owned businesses alter the small town landscape. Once-quaint hamlets are becoming vastly different places than of only a generation ago. This photo essay, focusing especially on the central Appalachian region of the US, visually describes these vast changes effecting rural communities and small towns. Photographs of defunct independent businesses and family farms (among others), document the demise and survival of rural communities. The loss of such local traditions and economies, population increases, the in-migration of the once urban or suburban, the growth in highways and traffic, and drug manufacturing and trafficking are indicative of social disorganization. Growing public problems and residents' political impotence indicate a lack of collective efficacy. These issues and others are addressed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines neighborhood-level predictors of ethnic-specific intimate and non-intimate aggravated assaults. In particular, social disorganization theory, including the role of recent immigration, is used to examine community counts of disaggregated aggravated assaults that were reported to the police in the city of Miami, Florida. Neighborhood predictors (based on 2000 Census data) of ethnic-specific counts of intimate (i.e., between a current or previously sexually intimate partner) and non-intimate (i.e., other offenses) aggravated assaults are examined and compared for African Americans, Latinos, and Haitians residing in Miami. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The researchers tracked the probation outcome of 370 offenders sentenced to probation for felony-level driving while intoxicated. The 370 cases were drawn from the population of 884 offenders who were charged with felony-level driving while intoxicated during a calendar year. After six years, a semi-parametric event history analysis, the Cox proportional hazards model, was used to develop a model to predict success or failure while on probation. Success was operationalized as having successfully completed probation or still on probation at the end of period. Factors were selected based on two theoretical frameworks: social control and social disorganization/urbanization. Included were, but not limited to, prior criminal histories for both driving while intoxicated and other offenses, severity of sentence, length of time between filing and sentencing, age, gender, race/ethnicity, and indicators of social disorganization in the census track where the offender resided at the time of arrest. Findings are discussed for the influence of social control on DWI offenders' risk of failure on probation, controlling for the community-level factors. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an extensive literature on crime rates at the neighborhood level, but little of it directly bears on the extent to which some neighborhoods favor particular crime types over others. Although social disorganization theory asserts that certain socio-structural conditions will result in generalized high crime rates, other macro-level theories (e.g., differential opportunity and subculture of violence views) arguably predict differential crime profiles across neighborhoods, specifically with regard to the relative "portion" of the crime rate occupied by violence. Drawing on various data sources, this inquiry determines whether Chicago neighborhoods show significantly different crime profiles-that is, whether there are "violent neighborhoods." It also investigates whether the structural and cultural factors implicated in the social disorganization, differential opportunity and subculture of violence perspectives distinguish these neighborhoods or only predict the incidence of crime. The results reveal significant differences in the distribution of crimes that comprise neighborhood crime rates, as well as demonstrate that certain factors do identify neighborhoods that favor violence over other crimes. The discussion considers the theoretical and empirical implications of these findings. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past few decades have seen dramatic increases in enrollment at colleges and universities and with increased enrollment, increased rates of crime. The increased rate of crime on college campuses is not only a serious social problem, but also has implications for the educational and social development of students, who are less likely to attend, spend time on, or participate in social activities at high crime campuses. Using data collected from Peterson's Guide to Four-Year Colleges, the U.S. Census Bureau City and Metro Databook, and UCR campus crime statistics for the year 2000, the current study seeks to explore the role of social organization in explaining campus crime rates. The results of this study show that while social structural features of campus populations are clearly associated with rates of campus property crime, the role of social organization is less certain. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social disorganization research has primarily focused on the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and rates of crime. Bursik (1988) has argued that social disorganization theory needs to be extended to domains beyond the neighborhood context. The current research extends social disorganization theory by focusing on the effects that workplace organization has on social ties. Specifically, we hypothesize that employees who characterize their workplace as disorganized in terms of productivity, adequate equipment, and supervision will have weaker social ties with coworkers and supervisors than employees who characterize their workplace as organized. Further, we hypothesize that workplace victimization will influence this relationship. Individuals who have been victimized in their workplace will be more likely to have weaker social ties with coworkers and management and characterize their workplace as disorganized. Structural equation models are estimated to test these hypothesized relationships. Data from the 2002 and 2006 Quality of Working Life (QWL) module from the General Social Surveys (GSS) are used in the analyses. The GSS is a multi-stage probability sample of adults age 18 and older in the United States with a sample size of approximately 3,400 respondents. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrorism is an equation, which has many parameters. One of the imported actions in fighting terrorism is the tracking of the factors that are related with the terrorism. We can determine in which circumstances they find supporters for their terrorist organization. After determining factors, we can fight against terrorism more efficiently. Therefore, macro and micro theories in crime theories might be used to explain terrorism. Terrorism, like any other type of violence, occurs within society or between societies. These people can be whether deprived, poor, uneducated, unemployed, low class as well as upper one, high class, etc. In this paper I will study why Middle-East region produce more terrorists than others. Our hypothesis is higher poverty, higher inequalities, frustration, and anger against Western world in the Middle East, are related with terrorism. This paper combines social disorganization theory, Merton's anomie theory, Marxist theory, Hirschi's Social Bond Theory, Learning Theory, and Agnew's General Strain Theory. First three crime theories have been used as a basis for explaining relationship among poverty, inequality, and crimes. Literature advises that poverty and inequality should be considered as a good basis of violence and terrorism in the Middle East. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social disorganization theory posits that neighborhood structural disadvantage weakens the ability of local residents to achieve mutual goals and solve neighborhood problems, thereby resulting in high crime rates. I review research in the social disorganization tradition and propose three ways in which it can be extended. First, it is necessary to consider the correspondence between the theoretical and empirical definition of what constitutes a neighborhood. Second, empirical research should account for the fact that local neighborhoods are not immune to influence from surrounding areas. Finally, researchers should be more cognizant of whether the effects of neighborhood characteristics influence violent and property crimes similarly or differently. That is, consideration should be given to issues of (in)determinacy. Using data from seventy-four neighborhoods bounded by cultural and historical lines in St. Louis, my analyses speak to each of these issues. The findings are relatively consistent with prior research but demonstrate that it may be important to further consider potential determinacy in the effects of external crime and structural characteristics on local violent and property crime rates. I suggest that these findings have implications for whether social disorganization theory is best conceptualized as a pure control model or a cultural transmission model. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies report that children with mothers imprisoned have a much higher risk of delinquency (up to 80% greater) than general population and even children with imprisoned fathers. Yet, public policy does not address this issue until a system flags the child as a problem. For example, the child becomes truant, a runaway or commits a crime. With the increase in the number of women imprisoned, the number of children with mothers in jail increases without any policy or entity identified to help them. It is proposed in this paper that social disorganization, Bronfenbrenner's human development, and General Strain theories support the implementation of wraparound with this population. This presentation presents the history of wraparound and prior projects. It also discusses various potential implications for public policy and community response to this population. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social disorganization, routine activity and the opportunity theories in criminology focus on crime, place and poverty. The concentration of low-income families living in poverty promoted higher risk of domestic violence. Though there are currently no statistics on the extent of domestic violence among public housing residents and voucher holders, women living in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods experience domestic violence at higher rates than the general population (Benson and Fox 2004). This paper will focus on analyzing spatial analysis of intimate partner violence in and around low income public housing projects. Based on the environmental criminological perspective and using crime mapping tool, the current study examines domestic violence clustering pattern, its displacement, spatial dependency and neighborhood characteristics and environmental linkages to domestic violence. Preliminary results indicate clustering of domestic violence in and around low income public housing and section 8 homes. This paper examines: 1. Are homicides higher around public housing developments than in other areas? 2: How do the socio-demographic factors of the location influence incidence of crime around public housing? ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social disorganization theory was developed to explain how characteristics of disadvantaged urban neighborhoods produce crime. While it has been used to explain patterns of illicit drug use, methamphetamine poses a unique problemâ€"the use of methamphetamine is prevalent in rural areas, where socially disorganized conditions may have less influence. Rural poverty populations tend to be stable and ethnically homogeneous, and population density is lower. Moreover, the production and distribution of methamphetamine often involves stable social networks. Thus, community social organization may produce greater use of methamphetamine in rural areas. We examined that possibility in a study of the population of prisoners who entered Wyoming state correctional facilities during July 2005-June 2006. Hierarchical linear models were employed to estimate the effects of individual- and county-level variables on pre-incarceration methamphetamine use and severity of use. The findings indicate that primarily individual-level variables predicted methamphetamine use, whereas primarily county-level variables predicted severity of use among the subsample of users. Severity of use was greater in less densely populated, more ethnically homogeneous counties, consistent with the social organization model. But severity of use was related positively to percent female-headed households, as social disorganization theory hypothesizes. Theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social disorganization theory has traditionally been presented in the literature as a significant theoretical explanation of crime and delinquency. While this literature is voluminous in size, much of the recent literature has focused on theoretical expansion rather than traditional tests and retests. In continuing this recent trend, the current research, which is semi-exploratory in nature, seeks to examine social disorganization theory by incorporating a hypothesized mediating model consisting of informal police interaction variables. This is accomplished by theoretically treating the police as a neighborhood-level institution that, through informal interaction, can be incorporated into the informal social control network of social disorganization theory. This research seeks to examine the explanatory strength of the theory in predicting crime and how this explanatory power fluctuates when the informal police interaction variables are induced into the theoretical model. Preliminary results do indicate some fluctuation, but more advanced analyses are pending. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social disorganization theory has been advanced by the identification of robust family structure effects and by the confirmation that ecological conditions like family structure are related to female as well as male violence. Missing from past treatments, however, is empirical recognition of how profound gender differences, such as the centrality to women of nurturing and relational obligations, differentially affect the frequency and form of women's and men's violence. To advance a gendered approach to macrolevel research, I draw on ecological family research to operationalize one dimension of gendered obligations, the care burden, which gauges adult caregiver availability relative to children and the elderly. Using homicide and ecological data for 1600+ heterogeneous counties, I explore whether family structure and the care burden differentially affect the frequency and form of women's and men's homicide. Family structural deficits affect all forms of homicide for both sexes, particularly acquaintance homicide, though family disruption tends to elevate more the frequency of men's homicide. A heavier care burden shifts female offending towards family & intimate victims whereas it directs male offending towards acquaintances and strangers. The care burden has gendered effects in that a heavier care burden differentially affects the form of women's and men's homicide. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shaw and McKay's social disorganization theory has been expanded upon in recent years. Following the framework of Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls (1997), the following paper applies collective efficacy to the prison setting. Secondary data analysis examines detailed interview questions from a prison dataset. Measures include informal social controls, social cohesion and trust, and offending patterns. This study explores the utility of replacing the traditional neighborhood and neighbor with prison and inmate (respectively) to test collective efficacy as a mediator for violence. Specifically, this research will explore whether inmates with high collective efficacy victimize other inmates less frequently than inmates with low collective efficacy using a statistical count model. Policy implications and future research will be included. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers at the University of North Carolina Wilmington have compiled a series of cross-sectional surveys that provide nearly a ten year analysis of perceptions of crime in the Cape Fear region. Crime incidents escalated in the late 1990s and the UNCW Fear of Crime survey was designed to further study the perception of city residents on the issues of crime and safety. Beginning in 1999, the biennial survey addresses the issues of fear of crime, public disorder, crime victimization, and public perceptions of local law enforcement. The survey also attempted to measure perceptions of police efforts to reduce gun violence and police-community relations. Often the important factor is the community's perceptions of these police initiatives. The researchers are now expanding the survey to include the increasing population of neighboring counties in the Cape Fear region. With survey results collected every two years, trends were analyzed and these results will be discussed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that teenage substance use is influenced not only by the personal experiences and backgrounds of youth but also by the characteristics of larger social contexts including schools and communities. We contribute to this literature by examining the relative effects of student, school, and district level factors on the use of alcohol and various illicit drugs. We draw upon social learning, social bond, economic deprivation, and social disorganization theories and recent multi-level analyses of adolescent substance use to inform our analyses. Our purposes are three-fold. First, we conduct analyses to examine the relative impact of multi-level causes of substance use. In addition to partialing out the effects at each level, we also examine cross-level interactions. For example, we measure the extent to which effects of students' social bonds and differential associations vary across different school contexts. Second, we compare coefficients across models predicting different forms of substance use including alcohol, marijuana, and methamphetamine. Third, we are interested in the relationship between student race/ethnicity and substance use, especially how that relationship might vary across substances and might depend on the racial composition of school districts. HLM analyses are performed with a sample of 202 Michigan school districts and 93,000 students. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relying on innovative extensions of both the routine activities (Osgoodet al. 1996) and the social disorganization perspectives (Sampson et al.1997), we test the hypothesis that unstructured socializing leads toincreases in violent behavior within urban communities. We also examinewhether living within a high collective efficacy neighborhood reduces theimpact of unstructured socializing on violence. The paper uses threewaves of data from the Project on Human Development in ChicagoNeighborhoods Community and Longitudinal Surveys. Results from multilevelmodels support our hypothesis, suggesting that dwelling within a highcollective efficacy neighborhood attenuates the positive effect ofunstructured socializing on violent behavior. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research consistently finds that racially segregated communities experience higher levels of crime and social disorganization. Yet the 1990s crime decline was unaccompanied by a notable change in the residential segregation levels of many cities between 1990 and 2000, suggesting a possible decoupling of the relationship between segregation and crime. In this paper we investigate when, whether, and how racial segregation structures disadvantage among minority communities. Our analysis will optimize residential segregation and homicide rates by finding the maximum level of racial integration (or isolation) that minimizes (or maximizes) homicide between 1980 and 2000. Segregation thresholds are identified to illuminate "tipping points" in homicide rates, and segregation inertia/stability during this period is used to test causal arguments that homicide (or crime more generally) is caused by growing inequality in residential segregation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rates of violent crime significantly increased between 2004 and 2006 in Florida, a state known for high levels of immigration. The prevailing public stereotype holds that immigrants commit a disproportionate number of crimes, although existing research indicates that immigrants commit no more, and possibly even fewer criminal offenses than native-born U.S. citizens. Grounded in social disorganization theory, this paper uses Poisson regression to analyze the impact of neighborhood characteristics, measured at the census tract level, on violent offense rates of U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens in Orange County, Florida. The data are derived from cases files of 526 individuals who were booked into the Orange County Correctional Facility during 2006. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are addressed. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous recidivism research has focused on the individual offender characteristics, the incarceration experience, ties to the community upon release, or level of post-custody supervision, which are useful, but often limited to a small set of factors and applicable to a specific subcategory of inmates. This study expands upon the research base by incorporating several social control factors simultaneously to explain more fully the impact of individual, community, and public controls on the likelihood of an individual returning to prison. Social disorganization theory offers a strong foundation for conceptualizing the impact of the pushes and pulls experienced by released inmates in terms of private, parochial, and public controls. Using the Bureau of Justice Statistics' National Corrections Reporting Program (NCRP) data, Census of Population and Housing data, and other related data sources, this study will follow a cohort of released inmates from jurisdictions which vary by type and degree of social and public controls, and identify factors which inhibit or accelerate returns to prison. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighborhood informal social control has been found to be an important protective factor against a variety of social problems including crime and delinquency. Much of the current research examining informal social control within community-crime prevention models focuses on shared values as a foundation for informal social control (e.g., Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls 1997). Drawing on the prevention literature that focuses on social norms and their misperceptions (i.e., the "social norms approach," Perkins and Berkowitz, 1986; Perkins 1991;1997), this study examines the role of misperceived neighborhood values on the perception of the likelihood of informal social control. Findings show that misperceptions of values are better predictors of perceptions of informal social control than actual variation in neighborhood values, social ties, or faith in the police. The results are discussed in relation to current findings in social disorganization theory, and crime prevention strategies. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing literature on urban communities points out that structurally disadvantaged neighborhoods have higher rates of crime and disorder than areas that are more affluent. Social disorganization theory addresses the causes of crime in disadvantaged areas and the primary focus is on a community's ability to realize the common values of its residents and maintain effective social controls. Interestingly Shaw and McKay performed one of the earliest evaluations of the impact of organizational participation in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Prior research has indicated that the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville appears to be the most structurally disadvantaged area in all of Brooklyn's Community Districts. This analysis will assess a crime reduction strategy that does not involve the use of formal and informal social controls and that is organizational participation. First it will be determined if this community has maintained its crime reduction. Second it will be determined if these organizations have sustained themselves and if new ones have emerged in the past decade. The next objective is to determine if these organizations are providing the parochial controls necessary to strengthen weakened private and public controls. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite longstanding interest in the effects of immigration on American society, there are few studies that examine the relationship between immigration and crime. Drawing from social disorganization theory and community resource/social capital perspectives, this study examines the effects of Hispanic immigration on Hispanic violence. Data on violence (i.e., homicide, robbery, and Violent Index) and the structural conditions of Hispanic populations are drawn from the California Arrest Data (CAL), New York State Arrest Data (NYSAD), and U.S. Census data for approximately 400 census places during the 1999 to 2001 period. Findings suggest that immigrant concentration has little direct effect on Hispanic rates of violence and may slightly reduce robbery. Immigration also appears to have multiple, offsetting indirect effects on Hispanic violence that work through social disorganization and community resource measures. These results suggest that (1) immigrant concentration does not contribute to Hispanic violence and may even reduce some forms of violence, (2) immigration simultaneously stabilizes and destabilizes structural conditions in Hispanic populations, and (3) it is useful to examine both the direct and indirect effects of immigration on crime. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research testing social disorganization theory has focused on explicating and elaborating the effect of social ties on neighborhood informal social control. This research suggests that the systemic model of social ties is in need of refinement, and that it is not just the presence of social ties, but also the quality of social ties, that matter for informal social control. Drawing on Hunter's (1985) private, parochial and public social control framework, this study examines the differential effects of family-level and neighborhood-level social ties on informal social control. Using multilevel analyses of data from Los Angeles neighborhoods, we address the following questions: 1) Are neighborhood- and family-level social ties independent of one another or do they interact? 2) Do family-level social ties mediate the effects of neighborhood social ties on informal social control? Initial findings suggest that parental involvement with their children is at least as important for informal social control as neighborhood social ties. The results offer insight into the parochial and private sources of informal social control and important implications for crime-prevention strategies targeted at familial and neighborly relationships. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime control in the United State has long relied on law and formal control. Over the past two decades, criminologists and sociologists within the social disorganization tradition have found that informal social control is a significant predictor of deviance or crime in a neighborhood. It is surprising, however, that there is little empirical research in comparing the effect of formal and informal crime control on crime and examining the effect of their interaction on crime. The current study is intended to use data from 2309 individuals at 66 neighborhoods in the two largest cities of a southern state to examine the following issues: 1) the effect of formal control on violence, drug-related crime and physical disorder; 2) the effect of informal control on the three outcomes above; 3) the interactive effect of formal and informal control on the three outcomes above. These effects are examined via hierarchical linear modeling. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective efficacy research builds on a social disorganization theory that portrays normative consensus as the key to safety and order. Recent research suggests programs or policies that enhance neighborhood collective efficacy have the potential to reduce violence, and disorder in urban neighborhoods. However, because it focuses on measuring resident feelings, instead of documenting what people actually do to maintain safety and order, existing research provides a poor basis for development of crime prevention programs or policy. In this article, we trace the focus on resident sentiment to a neighborhood vision inherited from the early Chicago school of sociology. Presenting findings from a study of social control strategies used by residents of four Chicago neighborhoods, we describe an individualized, spatially limited form of intervention which contradicts persistent assumptions associated with that vision. We argue that a more behaviorally oriented approach to social disorganization research will yield theoretical framework which better supports development of effective new approaches to community based crime prevention. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cohen and Felson (1979) suggested that crime rates trends and victimization are related to patterns of routine activities. Although recent studies find support for this assumption (Fisher et al 1998; Kennedy and Baron 1993), these analyses fail to account for the possible interactive effects of individual's routine activities and neighborhood's social processes on adolescent's violent victimization. This work aims at addressing this gap while integrating routine activities, social disorganization and subculture of violence explanations. Specifically, we examine the cross level interaction between neighborhoods' social structures (i.e. collective efficacy and tolerance of deviance) and adolescent's routine activities (i.e. unstructured socializing with peers and in home routine activities). Two important findings are reported; First, unstructured socializing with peers is positively associated with adolescent's violent victimization. Nevertheless, unstructured socializing is less likely to result in victimization within high collective efficacy neighborhoods. Second, at-home-routine activities are negatively associated within adolescent's violent victimization. However, at home routine activities are more likely to result in victimization within low collective efficacy and high tolerance of deviance neighborhoods. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on recent Latino violence research at the neighborhood level, the proposed study expands beyond the commonly studied Black/White racial dichotomy by examining race- and ethnic-specific robbery rates across neighborhoods in two urban centers. In particular, we will focus on Shaw and McKay's theoretical assertion that crime becomes a fixed and "relatively constant" characteristic of certain neighborhoods. Social disorganization theory is explicit in its assertion that high levels of neighborhood crime are resistant to change, regardless of neighborhood racial or ethnic compositions. Implicit in this argument is the expectation that community characteristics will have comparable impacts on the risk of victimization, independent of the race/ethnicity of the victim and offender. In other words, there is no theoretical reason to expect a differential effect of neighborhood structural factors on inter- and intra-racial violent crime. While it is likely that this description accurately describes patterns of crime for some neighborhoods, more recent scholarship raises questions regarding the generalizability of this argument (Lee et al. 2001; Martinez 2002; Lee 2003). Using robbery data collected in Miami, Florida and San Antonio, Texas, two Latino dominant cities with distinct native and foreign-born populations. The objective of the current study is to examine the degree to which neighborhood context influences the relative risk of robbery victimization by race/ethnicity and variations within inter and intra-group patterns. In addition to highlighting the importance of neighborhood context in shaping patterns of robbery within cities, this study also provides insight into how such patterns vary across cities. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on a previous project, this paper further tests Social Disorganization theory as it applies to gangs by focusing on ethnic differences in gang membership. I address both the individual and structural impacts on gang membership for a sample of youth from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health, Harris et al. 2003). Add Health is a national sample of adolescents in grades 7 through 12, representative of U.S. adolescents in regards to region, urban make-up, school type and size, and ethnicity. I conduct a series of logistic regression analyses to test the relationships between Latino ethnicity and gang membership, concentrated disadvantage and gang membership, and the relationship between gang membership and an interaction between ethnicity and concentrated disadvantage. I discuss the implications of this new perspective and make suggestions for future research. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key tenant of both older and newer versions of social disorganization theory is that when neighbors are willing to actively participate in informal social control, the community is protected, resulting in less crime. Members of a community can intercede directlyâ??collective efficacy, or indirectly by calling the police when they see worrisome behavior. People who engage in the latter presumably trust that calling 911 will have a positive effect. But, when residents perceive the police as unjust they are less likely to turn to them. In ethnically and economically heterogeneous cities trust may vary. Residents of ethnic and economically disadvantaged communities are likely to have greater distrust of police. Believing that they receive less protection, residents of high crime neighborhoods may also perceive injustice in the actions of local police. This paper uses data from the Seattle Neighborhoods and Crime Survey to examine the relative importance of neighborhood ethnic composition, economic disadvantage, and crime rates on perceptions of police injustice. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A preoccupation with the methodological and theoretical issues of urban crime has created a void in describing and explaining the etiology of crime within rural America. Consequently, there are significant research gaps in our understanding of both rural criminal offending and victimization rates within and among rural areas. This paper explores how recent sociological and economic shifts have augmented rural disorganization. Borrowing from traditional urban disorganization theory, this paper provides a social disorganization index which attempts to account for increased rates of rural crime. Findings suggest that rural areas are resilient to disorganization, however where disorganization permeates the rural community, effects are often mixed. While social disorganization theories are adequate in accounting for rural crime, it is necessary to refine and construct crime theories that consider rural-specific experiences. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an inverted version of social disorganisation theory, this paper examines the statistical relationship of sexual assaults rates and the social structural features of rural communities in Australia. Social structure is measured by census level indicators of the population for non-urban Local Government Areas (LGA). LGA's are equivalent to counties in the United States. Rural LGA's typically consist of a central market town and a surrounding hinterland of small villages and agricultural operations. Different types of rural LGA's, that is, different kinds of structural characteristics based on demographic, social and economic characteristics of LGA's, are expected to display different rates of sexual assault. Through this analysis, the paper critiques current synonymic concepts related to collective efficacy, cohesion, integration, gemeinschaft, and social disorganization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional explanations of occupational crime have focused on individual motivations or the impact of workplace subcultures on offending. Although these theories focus almost exclusively on the individual, many implicitly argue that organizational characteristics may also contribute to occupational crime. In this paper, we elaborate on these organizational characteristics by turning to one of the most widely known structural explanations of crime: social disorganization. Systemic reformulations of social disorganization assert socially disorganized communities are unable to regulate the behavior community members and thus have higher rates of crime. Similarly we argue that disorganized companies, those marked by characteristics such as high employee turnover, low industry salaries, few benefits and a high proportion of part-time workers are less likely to effectively regulate or control employee behavior through informal means and therefore will have higher rates of occupational crime. By refocusing on structural factors we offer a broader understanding of occupational crime, one that can predict and explain the organizational conditions under which employee theft will flourish or be subdued. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study strives to extend previous research on the link between socially disorganized neighborhoods and delinquent behavior. The data were derived from two sources, juvenile court records of a large metropolitan county located in Florida, and the 2000 Census. The analyses were conducted by census tracts. Drawing on the social disorganization theory, the present study examines the characteristics of the neighborhoods in where juvenile suspects' resided at time of arrest, and whether there is evidence of social disorganization in those neighborhoods. This line of research that applies the concepts of urban ecology and social disorganization has important implications for the study of delinquency by identifying aggregate-level risk factors for juvenile offending. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study concerns itself with how crime clusters in military communities. Military bases contribute a special population to communities. These populations are typically younger, of lower socioeconomic status, and of higher population mobility than other similar communities. Additionally, the barriers introduced by the military bases have the potential to change the way crime is arranged in the built environment. This study aims to specifically explore how the presence of indicators of social disorganization and concentrated disadvantage resulting from special military populations relates to the spatial arrangement of crime in the built environment. This could specifically relate to policy based on zoning policies, assignment of patrols and officers to certain areas at certain times, and other aspects of duty assignments. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project expands current social disorganization research to further explore the relationship between neighborhood residential stability and violent crime over time. Using data from Los Angeles between 1992 and 1997, I estimate a multivariate latent curve model of the change in the violent crime rate and the change in the rate of home sales while controlling for neighborhood socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, including potential interactions between race/ethnicity and crime, and race/ethnicity and sales. The use of trajectory models provides a more thorough examination of the years under study than current longitudinal methodology, and can more accurately account for the nonlinearity of change over time. Preliminary results indicate that the initial rate of violent crime significantly and positively predicts subsequent changes in the rate of home sales, but that the rate of home sales has no impact on changes in the rate of violent crime over. The interaction between the proportion Latino population and the rate of home sales, however, is a significant predictor of increases in violent crime over time. The results suggest that race and ethnicity have differential impacts on neighborhoods. The results also suggest that the interaction between the size of the African American population and the violent crime rate is significantly associated with higher rates of change in residential home sales. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion of collective efficacy has gained much currency in the analysis of crime and violence. Developed to clarify and measure the mediating influences between structural change and criminal outcomes implied by social disorganization theory, most research guided by this notion has been conducted at the neighborhood level and focused on serious criminal offending. This paper extends the notion to schools, with the substantive focus being on bullying and negative bystander behavior. The results of an analysis involving two waves of data are presented, with theoretical and programmatic implications delineated. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of the research on social disorganization theory focuses on violent crimes generally, without examining the specific types of violent crimes. Studies on homicide also tend to be more general than specific, yet the correlates of different types of homicide can vary greatly. There is a great deal of research that suggests that people kill strangers for very different reasons than those that lead to homicides of family members or intimate partners. This research seeks to broaden the understanding of social intimate partner homicide from a social disorganization perspective. It is expected that homicides perpetuated by partners have a greater degree of family disruption and are more likely to occur in areas that have greater disorganization overall, since areas of lower social cohesion and greater transience may have fewer resources than areas of low transience. Through the examination of county level data from the Uniform Crime Reports Supplementary Homicide Reports and U.S. Census data from 2000, this study utilizes negative binomial regression to examine the significant structural correlates of homicide counts nationwide. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of concentrations of crime events across both space and time has been empirically demonstrated and exists even as the geographic scale of analysis changes. However, the specific factors associated with this variation across places are less well-known. Many studies have been conducted at meso and macro levels of analysis but only a few at the micro level. These studies have revealed a set of factors that are associated with variation in crime across census tracts, cities, and states. However, these studies have usually relied on cross-sectional data, only rarely using longitudinal data. This study draws from both opportunity theory and social disorganization to examine the factors associated with micro level crime across both space and time. The spatio-temporal variation of a variety of environmental, social, and economic factors is analyzed. Specifically, the research describes micro level variation among the individual street blocks in Seattle, Washington over a sixteen year time period. In doing so, the study sheds light on the distribution of factors that are associated with changes in crime rates. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bulk of available research on the geography of crime considers the 'spatial-ness' of crime as being limited to single points in space. In reality, crime events are complicated spatial networks made of nodes that may or may not overlap. The research presented here outlines a five category geometric classification for spatial networks-composed of homicide locations, offender residences, and victim residences- and shows the predictive value of various offender-, victim-, and homicide-characteristics through a series of multinomial logistic regression analyses. Also tested are contextual measures of the neighborhoods surrounding each network node, drawn from macro-geographical research on Routine Activities and Social Disorganization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social disorganization has been used many times in analyzing crime tendency in many typical western countries greatly (eg: U.S, UK). However, little literature has focused on the social development in the orientated culture. Because China has a different history and cultural experiences, different ideology as well. Based on studying Violent crime rate in Shanghai City , I find Shanghai city is in the process of social disorganization now. In contrast to western countries, there are some features in Shanghai city 's social disorganization. The social structure and social culture both have been disorganized. The attenuationg of traditonal culture control ablility plays a key role in the process. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research indicates that violence is associated with the social andeconomic characteristics of communities. Violence is particularly problematic in community areas characterized by high rates of familydisruption, unemployment, concentrated poverty, and inaccessibility toeconomic opportunities. A broad literature has developed on identifyingthese patterns of community social disorganization and theirrelationship to violent behaviors. Less research has identified specific actionable community-level interventions that can effectively mediate the influence of these social and economic factors. The present study seeks to evaluate anintervention--the business improvement district (BID)--that specificallyaims at modifying community-level processes that are linked to violence. BIDs by design are grassroots community-level interventions that are theoretically tied to the social disorganization processes outlined in community-based theories of neighborhood disorder and youth violence. To test whether BIDs reduce violence this study selected census tracts in Los Angeles that contain BIDs and then used propensity score weighting to match these areas to a sample of census tracts without BIDs but with similar social and economic characteristics. We applied the use of a hierarchical Bayesian analysis on reported arrests and victimizations to assess the extent to which BIDs are associated with a reduced prevalence of interpersonal violence in communities. We discuss the findings within the context of community-level violence prevention efforts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Researchers analyzing juvenile delinquency in poor urban communities frequently use Shaw and McKay's social disorganization theory as the framework for their research design. Thus, there has often been a focus on the community's structural characteristics in relation to the crime and delinquency rate. Other means of delinquency reduction, particularly the role of community organizations has been somewhat overlooked when studying delinquency in poor urban areas. The purpose of this study is to examine how community organizations affect the delinquency rates in a Brooklyn, New York neighborhood. The Chicago Area Project became the most noteworthy community organization that evolved as a result of Shaw and McKay's social disorganization theory and research. It will be used as a model to analyze the various community organizations that serve this Brooklyn community. The goal will be to determine how these community organizations contributed to the organizational structure of this community. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that high rates of mobility are detrimental for communities and lead to an increase in social disorganization. Little is known, however, about mobility rates for parolees and if such mobility is related to parole revocation. Using a dataset of individuals on parole in California from 2003-2006, this study seeks to determine the relationship between mobility and parole revocation. The study will answer fundamental questions such as which parolees move, how often they move, and the distance traveled during each move. The study will also compare mobility of individuals revoked from parole to individuals who remain revocation-free. I will compare the frequency of moving across both groups, the distances moved by both groups, as well as social demographic characteristics of the neighborhoods across groups. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent legislation to monitor and control convicted sex offenders outside of correctional facilities has been designed to quell public concerns over notification about sex offenders within communities and the regulation of their access to potential victims. However, there has been little empirical research about the effectiveness and implications of mandatory public registration and residency restrictions. This study situates this particular social problem within the criminological literature on crime and communities. Relationships among neighborhood levels of social disorganization and collective efficacy are examined against the spatial distribution of registered sex offenders using sex offender registrations, census data, and survey data for the city of Chicago. This study seeks to explain differences in the concentration of registered sex offenders at the neighborhood level. Lastly, this study examines the implications of residency restrictions on neighborhood resources for formal and informal social control. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research on individual risk factors has empirically described how the risks and circumstances of being a homicide victim vary greatly across age levels (including dramatic shifts across childhood into early adulthood) -- patterns that are well explained by Finkelhor's developmental model of violence. Other aggregate-level homicide research has documented how the risks of being murdered vary geographically across types of communities and cultural settings -- patterns usually explained in terms of social structural or subcultural models of violence. This paper analyzes the intersection of these two approaches by combining them within a life course perspective, in which developmental patterns are viewed as generally socially variable and conditional, rather than invariably universal. The data analysis uses UCR Supplementary Homicide Report data for the years 2000-2004; the data on individual homicide victims and events are combined with community-level data from the census bureau to index the social and ecological contexts of the homicide victimizations. The analysis details the major variations in homicides risks and event characteristics across age levels (as per the Developmental Model of Violence), and then assesses the variability of these patterns across regional and community-level contexts (as per the Subcultural and the Social Disorganization Models of Violence). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]