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The spatial relationship between violent crime and alcohol outlets is well documented. Yet, it is unclear whether on- or off-premises alcohol outlets have greater effects on violent crime and whether this varies by interpersonal crimes and off-premises outlet subtype. This study addresses this gap by using both Routine Activities and Social Disorganization Theories. Using census block groups (n = 1,126) in the Bronx, NY, spatial access methods were used to measure violent crimes from 2018 to 2020 (n = 28,587) and alcohol outlets from 2020 (n = 1,984). Social disorganization measures consisting of various socioeconomic factors and accessibility factors were included. Five models were estimated using a Spatial Lag regression model. A positive direct, indirect, and total effect was observed for liquor, grocery, and drug stores on total violent crime exposure, but on-premise alcohol outlets was not related. Specific types of off-premises alcohol outlets were associated with various violent crimes, with liquor and grocery stores consistently related across all models. On-premises alcohol outlets were not associated with violent crime with the exception of assaults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Joint innovation across countries plays a vital role in international networks of knowledge-intensive businesses. We study how the cultural backgrounds of collaborators influence success in international innovation. Intercultural proximity implies shared values and norms that can engender trust and cooperation in innovation. However, social fragmentation can induce conflict and mistrust, whereas joint innovation can progress through the tolerance and acceptance of different views. Our gravity model analysis of international patent cooperation data shows that social fragmentation complements intercultural proximity along the social identity dimensions of religion, ethnicity, and language to promote joint innovation. Intercultural proximity operates through trust, especially for countries with weak intellectual property rights laws, while social fragmentation operates through tolerance and acceptance, especially for countries with strong IPR laws. Economic strength, trade, and institutional differences are also important predictors of collaborative innovation. We confirm that geographical distance between countries lowers cooperation, but it cannot explain away the positive effects of intercultural proximity and social fragmentation. Plain English Summary: Co-innovation increases with intercultural proximity – and even more so when countries are socially fragmented. International joint innovation allows knowledge-intensive businesses to synergistically draw upon the ideas, expertise, and experience of innovators from their respective cultures (countries). However, such collaborations are often hampered by the uncertainty of partner exploitation and free-riding especially in the absence of formal institutions such as strong intellectual property rights (IPR) protection. In such cases, while intercultural proximity (e.g., along the dimensions of religion, ethnicity, and language) can promote cooperation through the informal institution of trust, social fragmentation can induce mistrust and in turn hamper collaboration. This is puzzling in light of evidence that fragmentation also promotes innovation. Thus, we empirically show that the positive effect of intercultural proximity operates through trust especially when IPR protection is weak. The positive effect of fragmentation on international patent cooperation operates through tolerance and acceptance especially when IPR protection is strong. This implies that nurturing tolerance and acceptance while strengthening IPR and developing the intellectual property ecosystem in fragmented societies, building intercultural trust, and increasing diversity in countries, alliances, or firms can promote co-patenting success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth spend much of their time socializing and hanging out with friends, as well as engaging in extracurricular activities, in areas surrounding their schools. Additionally, many studies document a criminogenic effect of schools on the surrounding neighborhood. Yet little is known about how the structural characteristics of those areas shape adolescent involvement in criminal and delinquent behavior. Using recent data drawn from surveys of adolescents in three major U.S. cities, the American Community Survey, and the US Census, we analyze (1) the effects of school neighborhood contexts on adolescent crime and (2) the extent to which individual propensity (i.e., moral beliefs and self-control) moderates the effects of the school neighborhood context. We find that concentrated disadvantage and ethnic heterogeneity of the school area impact delinquent behavior only among youth with certain moral beliefs. Our findings highlight the need to identify the conditions under which social context matters and to focus on different types of neighborhoods beyond residential areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social integration, a huge issue triggered by migration, leads to potential social fragmentation and confrontation. Focusing on the precise enhancement of "inner" subjective social integration is the ultimate urbanization solution to enhance people-centered well-being and promote full social integration. This article used data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey 2017 (CMDS 2017) to reveal the spatial patterns and mechanisms of subjective social integration in Chinese cities. We make an innovative attempt to introduce multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) to address the appropriateness of policy formulation by addressing the spatial variation in the factors. The results demonstrate that the influences on subjective social integration have a strong spatial heterogeneity in China, a vast and unevenly developed country. Expanding on the typical factors, household registration and political participation affect North China more than other regions; and housing and marriage have a greater impact in South China, especially in the Pearl River Delta and the Eastern Seaboard. Income, welfare, and healthcare are indiscriminately sweeping through most of China. Such a conclusion reminds the Chinese government that it needs to consider not only addressing some of the national constraints to subjective social integration but also imposing precise, site-specific changes for different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper models the welfare consequences of social fragmentation arising from technological advance. We start from the premise that technological progress falls primarily on market-traded commodities rather than prosocial relationships, since the latter intrinsically require the expenditure of time and thus are less amenable to productivity increases. Since prosocial relationships require individuals to identify with others in their social group whereas marketable commodities are commonly the objects of social status comparisons, a tradeoff arises between in-group affiliation and inter-group status comparisons. People consequently narrow the bounds of their social groups, reducing their prosocial relationships and extending their status-seeking activities. As prosocial relationships generate positive externalities whereas status-seeking activities generate negative preference externalities, technological advance may lead to a particular type of "decoupling" of social welfare from material prosperity. Once the share of status goods in total production exceeds a crucial threshold, technological advance is shown to be welfare-reducing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study looks at the spatial distribution of robbery against residents as a function of nonstationary density and mobility patterns in the most densely populated city in Spain, Barcelona. Based on the geographical coordinates of mobile devices, we computed two measures of density of the ambient population and the tourist presence, for work days, weekends, and holidays in 2019. Negative binomial regressions are then estimated to analyse whether these measures are correlated with the risk of robbery, controlling for land use and the characteristics of the social environment. The model reveals that residents' chances of being exposed to robbery in Barcelona depend on the social relevance and tourism attractiveness of certain places at particular times of the year. Our results disclose two sources of social disorganization as stronger predictors of the occurrence of robbery in Barcelona, respectively linked to structural processes of residential instability and daily and seasonal mobility patterns. On the one hand, we found that the effect of the density of international tourists on the outcome variable is mediated by residential volatility, which is assumed to be associated with housing shortages in neighbourhoods where short-term vacation rentals are widespread. On the other hand, the ability to exert effective social control is significantly undermined in urban areas, where the ambient population and the volume of tourists outnumber the resident population, thus increasing incidents of robbery victimization. The implications of these findings for urban policy and crime prevention in the Catalan capital are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This preregistered scoping review provides an account of studies which have examined the spatial patterning of emergency reactive police demand (ERPD) as measured by calls for service data. To date, the field has generated a wealth of information about the geographic concentration of calls for service, but the information remains unsynthesised and inaccessible to researchers and practitioners. We code our literature sample (N = 79) according to the types of demand studied, the spatial scales used, the theories adopted, the methods deployed and the findings reported. We find that most studies focus on crime-related call types using meso-level (e.g., neighborhood) spatial scales. Descriptive methods demonstrate the non-random distribution of calls, irrespective of their type, while correlational findings are mixed, providing minimal support for theories such as social disorganization theory. We conclude with suggestions for future research, focusing on how the field can better exploit open data sources to 'scale-up' analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been highly controversial in China and beyond. The burgeoning of social media has created an online activist field where participants utilize networked framing practices to engage in connective actions related to GMO risks. However, a dynamic perspective on the co-production of GMO risk discourses has yet to be fully explored, and it is still under debate whether such a collective interpretation is fragmented. To address this gap, this study investigates the risk-invoked GMO controversy by longitudinally exploring the structural characteristics and discursive power structures in the networked framing of GMO risks on social media. This study examines 356,227 GMO risk posts from 2010 to 2020 on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. A longitudinal social network analysis and computational text-mining approach are used to construct representation networks among participants based on their joint sponsorship framing practices of GMO risks. The findings suggest that there is a multipolar discussion fragmentation in the networked framing of GMO risks. However, the temporal evidence shows that the risk discussion has become increasingly interconnected and less structurally fragmented over time. In addition, this study highlights the unequal distribution of discursive power among participants; nevertheless, the analysis reveals that this inequality has shown signs of easing over the study period. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of the GMO controversy from a risk perspective and sheds light on the dynamics of networked framing practices and discursive power structures on social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the current study is to examine factors related to opioid overdose deaths within the framework of social disorganization theory. We identify county-level factors related to overdose deaths among a series of measures related to economic (unemployment, health insurance coverage, and poverty) and socio-structural (prescribed opioid pills, racial heterogeneity, drug arrest rate, county rurality, and Appalachian location) disadvantage. Using panel data on counties in the United States drawn from five major, federal-level datasets, we perform a series of stepwise mixed-effects models to examine the relationships between economic and social markers of structural disadvantage and opioid-involved overdose deaths between the years 2006 and 2012. The proportion of poverty, unemployment, Appalachia, and pills prescribed are associated with increased opioid overdose deaths over time. A series of interactions illustrate that markers of disadvantage, including opioid prescriptions, often operate in tandem to exacerbate opioid overdose deaths. Based on standardized coefficients, the most predictive factor related to opioid overdose deaths is the volume of opioid pill prescriptions in a county on a year-to-year basis. Overall, this study emphasizes the utility of criminological theory in policy-related work focused on the opioid crisis. Our work also highlights the need for federal agencies to release data already collected on opioid pills to further our understanding of how to combat the opioid crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freud puts the verse of Virgil as an epigraph to his book on the interpretation of dreams. It is the exclamation of Juno who, after having tried in every way to defeat Aeneas, witnesses his landing on the coast of Lazio and the birth of Rome. She cannot give a reason for her defeat and then:she sought the earth: and summoned Allecto, the grief-bringer, from the house of the Fatal Furies, from the infernal shadows: in whose mind are sad wars, angers and deceits, and guilty crimes (VII, 323–325)(The Italian version of the Aeneid by Vittorio Sermonti, Rizzoli, 2007). In the transforming world of cyber space, we ask whether we can bring into interplay our conscious and unconscious parts to dream and interpret the world of digital sociality and of seemingly total knowledge. We further ask whether we can build upon our deeply rooted mechanisms of resistance and rebellion to cultivate the growth of social and individual awareness of the danger of social fragmentation arising from the utopian fantasies of individualism and mobility, and thus confront the dilemmas of surveillance capitalism and autocratic automaton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current project examines whether perceptions of collective efficacy are racialized. Using a sample of Black and Latinx young adults in Chicago, we first investigate whether perceptions of discrimination vary across Chicago's neighborhoods and whether neighborhood-level structural characteristics (concentrated disadvantage, immigrant concentration, residential stability) or neighborhood social processes (neighborhood-level collective efficacy) are related to their perceptions of discrimination. Our estimations show that perceptions of discrimination are endemic to Chicago's neighborhoods and are not related with neighborhood-level structural characteristics. Second, we examine whether perceptions of discrimination predict perceiving less collective efficacy while controlling for neighborhood characteristics. Overall, individuals perceive less collective efficacy when they perceive being discriminated against. Third, we analyze the sources of perceptions of collective efficacy separately for Black and Latinx individuals. These results suggest that discrimination shapes Black individuals' perceptions of their neighbors but do not hold for Latinx individuals. Supplemental analyses reveal that for Latinx individuals, discrimination undermines perceptions of collective efficacy only when is framed as related to their race. Taken together, our results suggest that racism is embedded in the way racialized individuals perceive their neighbors' agreement regarding norms of intervention. In short, the results suggest that the formation of collective efficacy is racialized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing dissension towards the political handling of COVID-19, widespread job losses, backlash to extended lockdowns, and hesitancy surrounding the vaccine are propagating toxic far-right discourses in the UK. Moreover, the public is increasingly reliant on different social media platforms, including a growing number of participants on the far-right's fringe online networks, for all pandemic-related news and interactions. Therefore, with the proliferation of harmful far-right narratives and the public's reliance on these platforms for socialising, the pandemic environment is a breeding ground for radical ideologically-based mobilisation and social fragmentation. However, there remains a gap in understanding how these far-right online communities, during the pandemic, utilise societal insecurities to attract candidates, maintain viewership, and form a collective on social media platforms. The article aims to better understand online far-right mobilisation by examining, via a mixed-methodology qualitative content analysis and netnography, UK-centric content, narratives, and key political figures on the fringe platform, Gab. Through the dual-qualitative coding and analyses of 925 trending posts, the research outlines the platform's hate-filled media and the toxic nature of its communications. Moreover, the findings illustrate the far-right's online discursive dynamics, showcasing the dependence on Michael Hogg's uncertainty-identity mechanisms in the community's exploitation of societal insecurity. From these results, I propose a far-right mobilisation model termed Collective Anxiety, which illustrates that toxic communication is the foundation for the community's maintenance and recruitment. These observations set a precedent for hate-filled discourse on the platform and consequently have widespread policy implications that need addressing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Since 2012, the production, sale, and use of marijuana and its derivatives for recreational consumption have been legalized in 15 states and Washington, DC, but remain controversial nationwide. Critics argue that marijuana retail outlets attract criminal activity in surrounding areas and promote social disorganization. This paper examines this issue by analyzing secondary data from Washington State, one of the first states to legalize the medical and recreational use of marijuana. Methods: Using geocoded police incident reports as a proxy for criminal events, retail outlet licensing/sales data, and other contextual data, we use a difference-in-difference and other quasi-experimental techniques to model whether the opening of a recreational outlet affects crime in the surrounding neighborhoods, specifically in the cities of Seattle, Bellevue, and Tacoma. Results: The analyses find modest but statistically significant increases in property crime in Census block groups containing new retail stores. Conclusions: The findings from this study are consistent with some previous research that finds a link between marijuana outlets opening and an increase in neighborhood crime, but additional research is needed to further explore the association, for instance, in other states that have legalized recreational marijuana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a renewed interest in moving back into cities, which are close to business districts and offer affordable and unique housing. However, the available housing is limited and may require renovation as available housing close to the citycenter is often located in more economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Property repairs and upgrading contributes not only to the improvement of individual owners' properties, but the neighborhood overall. This influx of new residents and subsequent investment in housing can impact neighborhood crime, but the majority of the research on housing and crime has focused largely on home mortgage loans. The current study extends the housing investment literature by using an underutilized data source: home improvement and refinance loans, which signal physical improvement in the housing stock. This process may be different for neighborhoods that have a higher prevalence of minority residents as historically these residents have been subjected to inequitable lending practices. The current study examines how revitalization efforts in Cleveland, Ohio have influenced crime rates for the years 2007 through 2017 with special attention paid to the interplay of neighborhood racial composition and home improvement loans. Results from fixed-effects panel analysis reveal that home improvement loans are associated with an increase in property but not violent crime rates overall. Splitting neighborhoods into predominantly Black versus all other neighborhoods, however, results show that higher rates of home improvement loans are associated with lower violent crime rates, but the effect is tempered in Black neighborhoods. This suggests that the relationship between home improvement loans and violent crime is more complicated and varies by neighborhood composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To test for statistically significant change in crime rates across neighbourhoods in Vancouver, Canada, resulting from social restrictions within the natural experiment of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Differential local Moran's I is used to identify statistically significant change in crime patterns across Vancouver's neighbourhoods because of COVID-19. These changes are analysed with variables from social disorganization theory constructs using ANOVA. Results: At the neighbourhood level, all crime types have significant change during COVID, but not always at the city level. Different neighbourhoods have different changes in crime despite these changes appearing to be constant at the city level; local effects asre important to consider. Variables representing the constructs of social disorganization theory are able to predict these changes. Conclusions: COVID-19 has changed the patterns of crime in Vancouver, but most often in theoretically expected ways. Local changes are critical to understand crime during a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A small, but growing, body of criminological knowledge shows that natural resource extraction activities contribute to violence against women in rural and remote areas, but the extant literature is undertheorized. This is not to say, however, that this research is not theoretically driven. While not always made explicit, almost all of it is guided, either explicitly or implicitly, by social disorganization theory and Durkheim's anomie theory, both of which ignore the influence of patriarchal social forces embedded in many rural localities where natural resource extraction activities occur. The main objective of this paper, then, is to offer an empirically informed new critical criminological theory that has the potential to more effectively explain the linkage between natural resource extraction and violence against women in rural and remote communities around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many leading criminological theories problematically focus on individuals and communities as criminal rather than implicating structures and systems that perpetuate harm. We offer a nine-step protocol to invert and redefine three predominant deficits-based criminological theories. Our inversion method produced punitive provocation theory, critical environmental adaptation theory, and socio-structural induction theory, as theoretical inversions of deterrence, social disorganization, and self-control theory. We suggest different measurement options for each new inverted theory, including a focus on the structural antecedents of crime such as racial/ethnic discrimination, exclusion, surveillance practices, and divestment from communities. To ameliorate under-theorizing and create a more equitable and less harmful society, we urge theorists, researchers, and practitioners to adopt a more inclusive, critical, and reflexive approach to understanding human behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the association between vacation home rentals (VHR) and residential burglary, disturbances, and substance crimes from social disorganization and routine activity perspectives. Airbnb and crime data for 2018 in Austin, Texas, were analyzed spatially and with multivariate count regression models. Census block groups were used as the unit of analysis (N = 602). Other variables considered include socio-demographic variables, a spatial lag, and bar and nightclub locations. Negative binomial regression analyses revealed VHR properties to be significantly and negatively associated with residential burglary, substance crimes, and disturbances when the rental was the entire structure; however, VHR properties were associated with all crime types in a significant and positive manner when the rental was only for an individual room in the property. This is the second study to find negative associations between entire structure VHRs and crime, though this study varies from others in several aspects. VHRs do not appear to contribute to crime in all circumstances, and listing type matters. However, this is a newer research topic and future studies would benefit from using longitudinal methods, addressing the temporal order of VHR properties and crime in neighborhoods, as well as considering property management characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In social networks, users often engage with like-minded peers. This selective exposure to opinions might result in echo chambers, i.e., political fragmentation and social polarization of user interactions. When echo chambers form, opinions have a bimodal distribution with two peaks on opposite sides. In certain issues, where either extreme positions contain a degree of misinformation, neutral consensus is preferable for promoting discourse. In this paper, we use an opinion dynamics model that naturally forms echo chambers in order to find a feedback mechanism that bridges these communities and leads to a neutral consensus. We introduce the random dynamical nudge (RDN), which presents each agent with input from a random selection of other agents' opinions and does not require surveillance of every person's opinions. Our computational results in two different models suggest that the RDN leads to a unimodal distribution of opinions centered around the neutral consensus. Furthermore, the RDN is effective both for preventing the formation of echo chambers and also for depolarizing existing echo chambers. Due to the simple and robust nature of the RDN, social media networks might be able to implement a version of this self-feedback mechanism, when appropriate, to prevent the segregation of online communities on complex social issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis of data collected from a nationwide survey in 2021 focused on the prevalence and importance of different forms of social control particularly semiformal social control in community order maintenance within rural China. Scholars have a growing interest in China's semiformal control. However, prior studies lack quantitative research on the prevalence and importance of this semiformal control. Employing quantitative analysis, this study found that China uses a trinary (formal, semiformal, and informal) control system to maintain social order as contrasted with a Western binary (formal vs. informal) control system. Overall, semiformal organizations—village committees—are more prevalent and important than formal control mechanisms such as government and police and informal control mechanisms such as xiangxian or kin or kin-kind community leaders. Furthermore, the relative prevalence and importance of semiformal organizations and control are found to be associated with types of social order maintenance activities. These findings are meaningful for testing the generalizability of social disorganization theory and developing a China- or Asian-centric control theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Greek island of Lesvos is a holiday destination that became the main entry point for forced migrants to Europe during 2015 and 2016. These circumstances of disruptive societal change are used as the basis for developing a causal and dynamic model that creates public value in institutional voids. The clash between a holiday location and a humanitarian-ecological disaster and the fact that volunteers were the frontline response at the border of the EU in a politically complex situation made this, at the time, a very special case. The attention of celebrities and the media, Lesvos' geographical proximity to Turkey, the historical conflicts between the two neighbouring countries, the lack of interaction between local people and the involvement of international NGOs spurred conflicts between various actors, causing social fragmentation on the island. The model identifies the core aspects of strengthening social capital and building trust to counter such societal fragmentation. Following Archer's morphogenetic approach as a meta-concept, and the identification of causalities for understanding the social dynamics on Lesvos as a starting point, an extended version of Moore's public value concept was used to build the empirical basis for the development of the model. The model presented can be used to distinguish between three very separate pathways of creating public value. I call this public value (PV) outcome creation. These pathways are described separately by using causal loop diagrams (CLDs). When aligned, they suggest a causal understanding of how adaptive leadership and collaborative governance can be a core element and a generative mechanism of social change that creates public value. Although the paper draws on a case study that is relevant to migration studies, it is not a migration study, but rather an attempt to use and improve "social-theory reflection" by applying a systems thinking approach as we embark on addressing public value creation, social problems and social-systems transformation (in institutional voids). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite decades of research into social disorganization theory, criminologists have made little progress developing community programs that reduce crime. The lack of progress is due in part to faulty assumptions in the theory: that neighborhoods are important; that residents are the primary source of control; and that informal social controls are emergent. In this paper we propose an alternative: the neighborhoods out of places explanation (NOPE). NOPE starts with property parcels (i.e., proprietary places), rather than neighborhoods. It focuses on the power and legal authority of people and institutions that own property, rather than on residents. It posits that control is intentional and goal driven, rather than emergent. We refer to those who own and control as creators. This small group of elites shape city areas and residents must adapt to the environments that suppress or facilitate crime. We discuss how shifting our focus to creators provides important new implications for theory, research, and policy in criminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Two important issues constrain the neighborhood effects literature. First, most prior research examining neighborhood effects on aggression and self-reported violence uses a point in time (i.e., cross-sectional) estimate of neighborhood disadvantage even though the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage varies between families. Second, neighborhood effects may be understated due to over-controlling for family socioeconomic conditions. Both limitations suggest that prior research may be underestimating neighborhood effects, which impacts research on the invariance thesis and explanation of ethnoracial differences.The sample is drawn from the restricted use Future of Families and Child Well-being study. Data to measure youth’s exposure to neighborhood disadvantage is drawn from birth through age 9, with dependent variables measured at age 15. We estimate marginal structural models (MSM) with inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW.The results support hypotheses, indicating that the duration weighted measure of neighborhood disadvantage is more strongly associated with aggression and self-reported violence than the point in time, and that it accounts for a larger share of the ethnoracial differences.The findings provide a clear image of the consequences of long-term exposure to neighborhood disadvantage for aggression and violence. They suggest that criminologists addressing neighborhood effects should attempt, when feasible, to document and model the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage. They are also consistent with and add to a growing literature addressing MSM modeling with IPTW weights.Methods: Two important issues constrain the neighborhood effects literature. First, most prior research examining neighborhood effects on aggression and self-reported violence uses a point in time (i.e., cross-sectional) estimate of neighborhood disadvantage even though the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage varies between families. Second, neighborhood effects may be understated due to over-controlling for family socioeconomic conditions. Both limitations suggest that prior research may be underestimating neighborhood effects, which impacts research on the invariance thesis and explanation of ethnoracial differences.The sample is drawn from the restricted use Future of Families and Child Well-being study. Data to measure youth’s exposure to neighborhood disadvantage is drawn from birth through age 9, with dependent variables measured at age 15. We estimate marginal structural models (MSM) with inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW.The results support hypotheses, indicating that the duration weighted measure of neighborhood disadvantage is more strongly associated with aggression and self-reported violence than the point in time, and that it accounts for a larger share of the ethnoracial differences.The findings provide a clear image of the consequences of long-term exposure to neighborhood disadvantage for aggression and violence. They suggest that criminologists addressing neighborhood effects should attempt, when feasible, to document and model the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage. They are also consistent with and add to a growing literature addressing MSM modeling with IPTW weights.Results: Two important issues constrain the neighborhood effects literature. First, most prior research examining neighborhood effects on aggression and self-reported violence uses a point in time (i.e., cross-sectional) estimate of neighborhood disadvantage even though the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage varies between families. Second, neighborhood effects may be understated due to over-controlling for family socioeconomic conditions. Both limitations suggest that prior research may be underestimating neighborhood effects, which impacts research on the invariance thesis and explanation of ethnoracial differences.The sample is drawn from the restricted use Future of Families and Child Well-being study. Data to measure youth’s exposure to neighborhood disadvantage is drawn from birth through age 9, with dependent variables measured at age 15. We estimate marginal structural models (MSM) with inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW.The results support hypotheses, indicating that the duration weighted measure of neighborhood disadvantage is more strongly associated with aggression and self-reported violence than the point in time, and that it accounts for a larger share of the ethnoracial differences.The findings provide a clear image of the consequences of long-term exposure to neighborhood disadvantage for aggression and violence. They suggest that criminologists addressing neighborhood effects should attempt, when feasible, to document and model the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage. They are also consistent with and add to a growing literature addressing MSM modeling with IPTW weights.Conclusions: Two important issues constrain the neighborhood effects literature. First, most prior research examining neighborhood effects on aggression and self-reported violence uses a point in time (i.e., cross-sectional) estimate of neighborhood disadvantage even though the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage varies between families. Second, neighborhood effects may be understated due to over-controlling for family socioeconomic conditions. Both limitations suggest that prior research may be underestimating neighborhood effects, which impacts research on the invariance thesis and explanation of ethnoracial differences.The sample is drawn from the restricted use Future of Families and Child Well-being study. Data to measure youth’s exposure to neighborhood disadvantage is drawn from birth through age 9, with dependent variables measured at age 15. We estimate marginal structural models (MSM) with inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTW.The results support hypotheses, indicating that the duration weighted measure of neighborhood disadvantage is more strongly associated with aggression and self-reported violence than the point in time, and that it accounts for a larger share of the ethnoracial differences.The findings provide a clear image of the consequences of long-term exposure to neighborhood disadvantage for aggression and violence. They suggest that criminologists addressing neighborhood effects should attempt, when feasible, to document and model the duration of exposure to neighborhood disadvantage. They are also consistent with and add to a growing literature addressing MSM modeling with IPTW weights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Little is known about the prevalence and nature of paraphilic interests in the Hong Kong young adult population. This study explores the psychosocial factors associated with paraphilic interests. Methods: Testing the propositions of several criminological theories (i.e., the theories of self-control, general strain, social learning, social control, and routine activity), the study recruited 1171 participants (18–40 years old), from September 2018 through April 2020, to examine both general and 14 subtypes of paraphilic interest (i.e., voyeurism, exhibitionism, scatologia, fetishism, transvestic fetishism, frotteurism, sadism, masochism, biastophilia, urophilia, scatophilia, hebephilia, pedophilia, and zoophilia). Results: The findings indicate that males reported significantly higher levels of general and 12 subtypes of paraphilic interest than females, while females had a higher level of transvestic fetishism than males. No mean difference is found between males and females in interest in masochism. Relative to females, males reported significantly higher levels of negative temperament, alcohol and drug use, and risky sexual behavior, whereas females had higher levels of self-control, social bonds, and perceived neighborhood disorganization than males. Multivariate analyses indicate that in general, high levels of negative temperament, alcohol and drug use, risky sexual behavior, and perceived neighborhood disorganization and low levels of self-control and social bonds were important factors associated with the participants' likelihood of having general and 14 subtypes of paraphilic interest. Conclusions: These findings provide support to the significant role of psychosocial factors in understanding different paraphilic interests in the Hong Kong young adult population. Policy Implications: This study has implications for practice, in the form of reducing, if not eliminating, the tendency to develop an interest in paraphilic behaviors. This may be more important when referring to paraphilic behaviors that are criminally oriented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article employs a theoretical framework of disparate origin I term Structural Disorganization to analyze the apparent inverse relationship between the emergence of inmate organization hegemony and the rate of serious inmate violence in California prisons demonstrated by over 3 decades of inmate violence data collected from 1975 to 2006, suggesting the mitigating effect of inmate organization structure on serious violence in the carceral community. While the limitations of the data available preclude definitive proof of causality in the positivistic sense, the structural disorganization framework provides an intriguing analytical perspective for the seeming anomaly in the data regarding the effects of inmate organization hegemony and rates of serious inmate violence. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for the wider Kingpin Strategy employed by the US government and its proxies, followed by speculation on how the structural disorganization framework can be employed in future research and analysis to explain the relationship between organizational structures and rates of serious criminal violence in criminalized communities, both domestic and international. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social bonds and social organization theory are combined to examine schools' roles in regulating youth gang involvement in the context of community changes—an integrated approach to analyze psychological and sociological influences simultaneously. A subsample (N = 269) from Gottfredson et al.'s (A national study of delinquency prevention in school final report, Gottfredson Associates, Inc., Ellicott City, MD, 2000) national sample of schools to examine school-based, gang-prevention programs was combined with U.S. Census data to model the effects of community changes and school social organization on student's probability of gang involvement. Changes in the community's level of concentrated disadvantage and racial heterogeneity were related to a school's level of disorder. The probability of a student being gang-involved almost triples if the student attends a school one standard deviation below the sample mean School Social Bonds score; it doubles if the student attends a school one standard deviation above the sample School Disorder mean. Student characteristics partially mediated the relationship between School Disorder and gang involvement. Findings support extending social bonds theory to the school level. School-based, gang-prevention efforts may benefit from climates characterized by prosocial bonds and low social disorganization, especially for schools in highly-disadvantaged and/or demographically-changing communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social networks amplify inequalities by fundamental mechanisms of social tie formation such as homophily and triadic closure. These forces sharpen social segregation, which is reflected in fragmented social network structure. Geographical impediments such as distance and physical or administrative boundaries also reinforce social segregation. Yet, less is known about the joint relationships between social network structure, urban geography, and inequality. In this paper we analyze an online social network and find that the fragmentation of social networks is significantly higher in towns in which residential neighborhoods are divided by physical barriers such as rivers and railroads. Towns in which neighborhoods are relatively distant from the center of town and amenities are spatially concentrated are also more socially segregated. Using a two-stage model, we show that these urban geography features have significant relationships with income inequality via social network fragmentation. In other words, the geographic features of a place can compound economic inequalities via social networks. Not much is known about the joint relationships between social network structure, urban geography, and inequality. Here, the authors analyze an online social network and find that the fragmentation of social networks is significantly higher in towns in which residential neighborhoods are divided by physical barriers such as rivers and railroads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is under pressure to achieve sustainable development goals for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Services in agro-ecosystems are typically driven by key species, and changes in the community composition and species abundance can have multifaceted effects. Assessment of individual services overlooks co-variance between different, but related, services coupled by a common group of species. This partial view ignores how effects propagate through an ecosystem. We conduct an analysis of 374 agricultural multilayer networks of two related services of weed seed regulation and gastropod mollusc predation delivered by carabid beetles. We found that weed seed regulation increased with the herbivore predation interaction frequency, computed from the network of trophic links between carabids and weed seeds in the herbivore layer. Weed seed regulation and herbivore interaction frequencies declined as the interaction frequencies between carabids and molluscs in the carnivore layer increased. This suggests that carabids can switch to gastropod predation with community change, and that link turnover rewires the herbivore and carnivore network layers affecting seed regulation. Our study reveals that ecosystem services are governed by ecological plasticity in structurally complex, multi-layer networks. Sustainable management therefore needs to go beyond the autecological approaches to ecosystem services that predominate, particularly in agriculture. Clare Gray et al. construct multilayer networks of weed seed regulation and pest gastropod predation by carabid beetles in 374 agricultural fields and show that these ecosystem services are mediated by trophic interaction frequencies. This study reveals that ecosystem services are governed by ecological plasticity in structurally complex, multi-layer trophic networks and these could assist in the assessment of the contribution of biodiversity to ecosystem services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion that immigrants are more crime prone or increase crime has been largely debunked by criminologists over the last two decades. However, there is a lack of contemporary research on explaining perceptions of immigrant criminality, specifically. This study examines the factors that relate to American's belief that immigrants increase crime rates in local communities. Using weighted blocked logistic regression analyses, this study found that individual factors related to identity (e.g. race, gender, age, religion, etc.) were not significant predictors of the view that immigrants increase crime. Instead, individuals who believe immigrants are a burden to society, already have negative views of immigrants, and are more resistant to societal and cultural change are more likely to believe this falsehood. Overall, the findings offer partial support for the social disorganization and conflict perspectives, with the latter receiving the most support. Economic competition hypotheses received no support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the spatial and temporal patterns of property crime at the census block level in the mid-sized, medium- to high-income city of Coral Gables, Florida, USA, between 2004 and 2016. Specifically, we analyzed residential and vehicular burglary. We used Emerging Hot Spot Analysis (EHSA) to locate and identify crime hot and cold spots over time. In order to understand the role that various sociodemographic variables play in predicting crime patterns, geographically weighted regression (GWR) was used to analyze the spatial clustering of crime, and commercial areas, renter percentage, median household income, and multifamily households. Our results revealed consistent hotspots for residential and vehicle burglary within the northeast area of the city, while vehicle burglary had hotspots along U.S. Route 1 (US-1)—a main road in Coral Gables—and around the University of Miami, with emerging hotspots within the northwest part of the city bordering lower-income areas. Hotspots were associated with structural factors within and around the city including more multifamily homes, higher poverty rates, more renters, and greater economic disadvantage in surrounding municipalities. Social disorganization and routine activity perspectives are supported as frameworks to understand crime patterns in this context. The findings suggest that policymakers should target specific locations using geospatial analyses to better address property crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firearm violence is a leading public health issue that contributes to significant health inequalities within communities. Relatively little is known about the community-level social processes that occur at the street segment level and contributed to the community variation of firearm violence. This study examines the spatial patterns of firearm shooting events on street segments and the associated community-level social processes at both the street segment and neighborhood level. Multilevel mixed-effects Poisson regression was used to assess the relationship between measures of social disorder, physical disorder, and collective efficacy at the street segment-level and neighborhood-level measures of social disorganization theory. The results demonstrate that firearm shooting events occur on a small number of street segments across the city. Street segments with higher levels of social and physical disorder, along with lower levels of collective efficacy, are expected to have higher rates of firearm shooting events when accounting for neighborhood-level measures. Overall, the findings indicate specific street segments are experiencing higher rates of firearm shooting events and that these events are influenced by social processes. Prevention efforts should be focused on street segments experiencing higher rates of shootings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This study clarifies three important issues regarding situational or opportunity theories of victimization: (1) whether engaging in risk activities triggers violent assault during specific, often fleeting moments, (2) how environmental settings along individuals' daily paths affect their risk of violent assault, and (3) whether situational triggers have differential effects on violent assault during the day versus night. Methods: Using an innovative GIS-assisted interview technique, 298 young male violent assault victims in Philadelphia, PA described their activity paths over the course of the day of being assaulted. Case-crossover analyses compared each subject's exposure status at the time of assault with his own statuses earlier in the day (stratified by daytime and nighttime). Results: Being at an outdoor/public space, conducting unstructured activities, and absence of guardians increase the likelihood of violent victimization at a fine spatial–temporal scale at both daytime and nighttime. Yet, the presence of friends and environmental characteristics have differential effects on violent victimization at daytime versus nighttime. Moreover, individual risk activities appeared to exhibit better predictive performance than did environmental characteristics in our space–time situational analyses. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the value of documenting how individuals navigate their daily activity space, and ultimately advances our understanding of youth violence from a real-time, real-life standpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses and synthesizes the cumulative results from the empirical research on social disorganization and crime-related phenomena at the neighborhood level in China. Our review identified 17 relevant quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method studies published in journals and books from the late-1990s to date. Our goal is to take stock of the cumulative knowledge to inspire future research in China, thereby advancing social disorganization theory. We synthesize the main findings about the effects of structural factors and intervening mechanisms from quantitative studies, summarize briefly conclusions from qualitative and mixed methods research to crosscheck our synthesis, and identify methodological and theoretical limitations. Our conclusions point to promising directions for future research with special attention to prospects for theory development through comparative criminological inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: We know little about how community structures influence the risk of common mental illnesses. This study presents a new way to establish links between depression and social fragmentation, thereby identifying pathways to better target mental health services and prevention programs to the right people in the right place.Method: A principal components analysis (PCA) was conducted to develop the proposed Australian neighborhood social fragmentation index (ANSFI). General practice clinical data were used to identify cases of diagnosed depression. The association between ANSFI and depression was explored using multilevel logistic regression. Spatial hot spots (clusters) of depression prevalence and social fragmentation at the statistical area level 1 (SA1) were examined.Results: Two components of social fragmentation emerged, reflecting fragmentation related to family structure and mobility. Individuals treated for depression in primary care were more likely to live in neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status and with higher social fragmentation related to family structure. A 1-SD increase in social fragmentation was associated with a 16% higher depression prevalence (95% CI 11%, 20%). However, the association attenuated with adjustment for neighborhood socio-economic status. Considerable spatial variation in social fragmentation and depression patterns across communities was observed.Conclusions: Developing a social fragmentation index for the first time in Australia at a small area level generates a new line of knowledge on the impact of community structures on health risks. Findings may extend our understanding of the mechanisms that drive geographical variation in the incidence of common mental disorders and mental health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We propose and test a multilevel theoretical model of crime concentration by combining criminal opportunity and social disorganization into a single hierarchical model. Our theoretical model simultaneously answers calls to integrate routine activities theory and social disorganization theory and provides a logical framework for understanding the connections between neighborhood context and micro-spatial environmental conditions. Methods: To test our theory we used multilevel negative binomial regression with controls for spatial dependence to estimate street segment level crime counts. Results: Findings showed the expected direct effects on street segment-level violent and property crime of both micro- and neighborhood-level characteristics. Our results for cross-level interaction effects provided evidence neighborhood context moderates the association between street segment-level variables and crime. Model comparisons using likelihood ratio tests revealed that including neighborhood-level characteristics improved explanatory power relative to single level models. Conclusions: This study lends support to a multilevel theory of the law of crime concentration that includes both neighborhood and street segment level conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, criminology has attempted to identify ecological factors affecting the rise or the decrease in crime rates. In this framework, concepts of "social disorganization", "collective efficacy", and "social capital" have been coined. Particularly in recent years, the perspective of "social capital" has attracted the interest of criminologists, but, despite the numerous studies conducted in this field, some issues remain open. Firstly, studies conducted outside the US context are few. Secondly, even in North American studies, there is a disagreement over the impact of social capital on crime, in particular on violent crimes. The results of this study, conducted on data obtained by the ISRD3 survey in 23 countries around the world, and addressed to 7th, 8th, and 9th grade students (N = 55,201), try to address such issue: they show a negative correlation between social capital and self-reported crime also outside North America, both for violent crimes and general delinquency. The preventive role played by social capital on crime is also confirmed considering the self-reported data on victimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Urban areas are usually found to have higher rates of self-harm, with deprivation the strongest predictor at area-level. We use a disease mapping approach to examine how self-harm is patterned within an urban area and its associations with deprivation, urbanness and ethnicity.Methods: Data from clinical records on individuals admitted for self-harm for 725 small areas in South East London were included. Bayesian hierarchical models explored the spatio-temporal patterns of self-harm admission rates and potential associations with proximity to city centre, population density, percentage greenspace and non-white ethnic-minority populations. All models were adjusted for area-level deprivation, social fragmentation and hospital of admission.Results: There were 8327 first admissions for self-harm during the study period. Self-harm admission rates varied fourfold across the study area, with lower rates close to the city centre [adjusted standardised admission ratio, closest versus furthest quartile 0.71(95% CrI 0.54-0.96)]. Deprivation was associated with self-harm but partially masked rather than explained the spatial pattern, which strengthened after adjustment. After adjustment for deprivation, hospital of admission and social fragmentation, greenspace, population density and ethnicity were not associated with self-harm rates.Conclusion: Proximity to the city centre was associated with lower rates of self-harm, but the usual operationalisations of urbanness, population density and greenspace, were not. Deprivation did not explain the spatial patterning, nor did ethnicity. While nationally self-harm rates are higher in urban and deprived areas, this cannot be extrapolated to mean that within cities the inner-city is the highest risk area nor that risk will be principally patterned according to deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: There is consistent evidence that socio-environmental factors measured at an area-level, such as ethnic density, urban environment and deprivation are associated with psychosis risk. However, whether area-level socio-environmental factors are associated with outcomes following psychosis onset is less clear. This study aimed to examine whether the number of inpatient days used by people presenting to mental health services for psychosis was associated with five key area-level socio-environmental factors: deprivation, ethnic density, social capital, population density and social fragmentation.Methods: Using a historical cohort design based on electronic health records from the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust Foundation electronic Patient Journey System, people who presented for the first time to SLAM between 2007 and 2010 with psychosis were included. Structured data were extracted on age at presentation, gender, ethnicity, residential area at first presentation and number of inpatient days over 5 years of follow-up. Data on area-level socio-environmental factors taken from published sources were linked to participants' residential addresses. The relationship between the number of inpatient days and each socio-environmental factor was investigated in univariate negative binomial regression models with time in contact with services treated as an offset variable.Results: A total of 2147 people had full data on area level outcomes and baseline demographics, thus, could be included in the full analysis. No area-level socio-environmental factors were associated with inpatient days.Conclusion: Although a robust association exists between socio-environmental factors and psychosis risk, in this study we found no evidence that neighbourhood deprivation was linked to future inpatient admissions following the onset of psychosis. Future work on the influence of area-level socio-environmental factors on outcome should examine more nuanced outcomes, e.g. recovery, symptom trajectory, and should account for key methodological challenges, e.g. accounting for changes in address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The current study proposes unique methods for apportioning existing census data in blocks to street segments and examines the effects of structural characteristics of street segments on crime. Also, this study tests if the effects of structural characteristics of street segments are similar with or distinct from those of blocks.Methods: This study compiled a unique dataset in which block-level structural characteristics are apportioned to street segments utilizing the 2010 U.S. Census data of the cities of Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Huntington Beach in Orange County, California. Negative binomial regression models predicting crime that include measures of social disorganization and criminal opportunities in street segments and blocks were estimated.Results: The results show that whereas some of the coefficients tested at the street segment level are similar to those aggregated to blocks, a few were quite different (most notably, racial/ethnic heterogeneity). Additional analyses confirm that the imputation methods are generally valid compared to data actually collected at the street segment level.Conclusions: The results from the street segment models suggest that the structural characteristics from social disorganization and criminal opportunities theories at street segments may operate as crucial settings for crime. Also the results indicate that structural characteristics have generally similar effects on crime in street segments and blocks, yet have some distinct effects at the street segment level that may not be observable when looking at the block level. Such differences underscore the necessity of serious consideration of the issues of level of aggregation and unit of analysis when examining the structural characteristics-crime nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Human trafficking has generated growing concern among both policy makers and researchers. However, research has been hampered by a lack of valid data and appropriate methods. Our study attempts to improve understanding of this issue by developing a macro-level social disorganization perspective which suggests that trade openness may be an important vector of human trafficking such that countries in transition between high and low levels are likely to face major challenges in controlling trafficking and will therefore be especially likely to experience high rates. Our analysis is based on United Nations panel data containing 163 time points for 43 countries from 2003 to 2008 where there is full information across the variables of interest. Methods: The study first relies on semi-parametric fixed effects regression estimators to determine the 'true' functional form of the relationship between trade openness and human trafficking. Next, we utilize random and fixed effects regression analysis and negative binomial regression analysis to assess the existence of an inverted U-relationship between trade openness and human trafficking. Results: Consistent with our theoretical prediction, the spline approximation of the relationship between trade openness and human trafficking rates exhibits a clear inverted-U. The random and fixed effects regression results support the same conclusion. The turning point is estimated to be 1.995 and two sensitivity analyses confirm this finding through a parametric and a nonparametric bootstrap method with replications. Finally, using negative binomial and fixed effects negative binomial regressions, we again confirm that there is an inverted-U relationship between trade openness and human trafficking counts. Conclusions: In line with a macro-level social disorganization perspective we argue that countries with relatively weak social control will have high rates of crime and deviance. We operationalize social control in terms of the openness of a country's trade to the international community and as expected we find a curvilinear relationship between levels of trade openness and human trafficking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We draw on social disorganization (SD) theory and social capital to examine the impact of neighborhood environment on the ethnic gap in intimate partner violence (IPV) between Arab and Jewish women in Israel. We linked census data on neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) to national data we gathered in 2014-2015 on 1401 women (436 Arab, 965 Jewish) age 16-48. Women were interviewed while visiting 65 maternal and child health clinics throughout Israel. We used General Estimated Equation (GEE) multivariate logistic regression models to adjust for clinic cluster effects and estimated the contribution of neighborhood collective efficacy, problems, relative socioeconomic status (SES), bridging and linking social capital, and social support to explaining ethnic inequalities in IPV, while adjusting for women's socioeconomic and socio-demographic characteristics. We found that any IPV is higher among Arab compared to Jewish women (odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) = 4.19 (2.72,6.42)). Collective efficacy and social group membership (bridging social capital) had no effect on the ethnic inequality in any IPV and types of IPV. Women's active participation in social groups (linking social capital), higher social support, and living in neighborhoods with relative SES similar to the ethnic group average) had a protective effect from any IPV and physical IPV. Neighborhood problems were associated with increased any IPV and physical IPV. In the final model, the ethnic gap in IPV was reduced but not eliminated (OR (95%CI) = 3.28 (2.01, 5.35). Collective efficacy did not explain the ethnic gap in IPV, while women's active participation (linking social capital) had a protective effect from IPV. Given the protective nature of women's activism in this population, future research should investigate how this might be incorporated into solutions to IPV. In addition, reducing neighborhood problems, improving neighborhood SES, and increasing social support might help reduce IPV among Arab women, thus decreasing the ethnic gap in IPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global production of knowledge is grossly skewed to the northern Anglophone world (Hogg et al. in International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 6(1), 1-7, 2017; Connell 2007). It should be no surprise therefore that criminology's origin stories are derivative of northern experiences, yet generalised as universal theories of crime causation. In this article, we argue that the origin stories of criminological theory translated the 'darker', 'hairier' and 'muscular' masculinities of the global south into prototypes of dangerousness. These prototypes were first articulated as scientific claims in the nineteenth century works of Lombroso, but have been refined and embedded in mainstream criminological discourses well into the present, mainly through the quantitative study of social disorganisation, 'race' and racialised masculinities as variables in crime causation. The paper concedes that while deeply troubling expressions of violent masculinity exist now and in the past in the global south, it is mistaken to conceive this violence simply as expressions of atavism or social disorganisation associated with a less civilised world. On the contrary, this paper argues that the violence of colonality itself has had, and continues to have, a criminogenic impact on the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study assessed the characteristics of individuals with substance use disorders (ISUDs) according to their frequency of emergency department (ED) utilization, and examined which variables were associated with an increase in ED visits using Andersen's model. Data linkage of administrative databanks from three sources [addiction rehabilitation centre registry, physician billing systems, and hospital discharge databank] for 4526 ISUDs was performed. Predisposing, enabling and need factors associated with number of ED visits were determined using a negative binomial regression model and generalised estimating equations. The rate of ED utilization for this population was 9.6 %. Increased number of ED visits was associated with the following variables: older age, social fragmentation, number of consultations with general practitioners, number of consultations with psychiatrists, number of consultations with other types of physicians, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, co-occurring substance dependence and mental disorders, co-occurring substance dependence and chronic physical disorders, and co-occurring mental health disorders and chronic physical disorders. By contrast, a diagnosis of substance dependence, co-occurring drug and alcohol abuse, and a co-occurring diagnosis of substance dependence with mental health and chronic physical disorders decreased ED visits. Efforts to reduce avoidable use of EDs should focus on chronic-disease management and other related strategies aimed at reinforcing services to ISUDs in the community, especially for ISUDs with a co-occurring diagnosis of either mental health disorders or chronic physical disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research (see American Journal of Criminal Justice 30 (2), 177-192, 2006a) examined the residential locations and mobility of registered sex offenders and showed a common movement into increasingly socially disorganized neighborhoods after 5 years of registration. The present study examines whether or not this downward spiral continues for these sex offenders 10 years later. We examined 212 registrants from the original study and found that since their original arrest 38 % of the registrants have moved into a more socially disorganized neighborhood than their previous address. The only variable found to influence the likelihood of move to a more socially disorganized neighborhood is race, with minority sex offenders most affected. The findings suggest that the collateral consequences of sex offender policies have long-term deleterious effects on housing for sex offenders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses three main issues. First, the structural explanation of crime rates across zip codes within a US county outside of that county's major city's limits. Second, this article addresses whether the traditional social disorganization argument which links measures of disorganized neighborhoods and in particularly deficiencies in informal social control to race, income inequality and poverty provides an adequate explanation of variations in non-city zip code crime rates. Third, this article also examines a radical critique of the kind of structural model posed by social disorganization, and tests an alternative radical economic model of crime at the zip code level. The empirical evidence illustrates the weakness of social disorganization explanations of crime at the zip code level. In contrast to those results, the empirical results for the proposed radical economic model of crime support its use for explaining crime across county zip codes. This type of empirical evidence demonstrates that radical models of crime have utility in explaining how economic structures influence the distribution of crime independently of variable identified in orthodox criminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Numerous studies have examined the ecological relationship between suicide and area level determinants such as deprivation and social fragmentation. In Ireland, there is considerable geographic variation in the rates of suicide. However, there is a dearth of Irish studies investigating the geographic variability of suicide.Methods: The Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) provided data relating to all deaths by suicide and deaths of undetermined intent that occurred from 2009 to 2011. Negative binomial regression was used to examine the relationship between area level suicide rates and measures of deprivation, social fragmentation and population density that were taken from the 2011 National Census.Results: Overall deprivation had the strongest independent effect on small-area rates of suicide, with the most deprived areas showing the greatest risk of suicide (risk ratio = 2.1; 95 % CI 1.70-2.52). Low population density (rurality) was associated with an increased risk suicide in males across both age groups and among females in the older 40-64-year age group. Conversely, a weak association between high population density (urbanicity) and increased suicide risk was found among females in the 15-39-year age group. Associations with social fragmentation only became apparent in the sub group analysis. Social fragmentation was associated with an elevated risk of suicide in the older 40-64 age group, with this effect being most pronounced among females.Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrate marked geographical inequalities in the distribution of suicide in Ireland and highlight the importance of targeting suicide prevention resources in the most deprived areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper combines the theoretical foundations of organisational ecology - one of the most important approaches in economic sociology - with classic criminological theories to interpret the birth, evolution and death of criminal associations. This mixed approach will support the interpretation of organised crime groups as phenomena strictly linked to the environment as well as to other competitors in criminal markets. This paper analyses the birth, evolution and death of a criminal association in Basilicata, Southern Italy, known as the 'Famiglia Basilischi'. The case is exemplary of how ecological conditions affect the success or failure of a newly formed criminal association. These conditions can therefore be indicators to interpret organised criminal activities in similar environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certain forms of criminology such as social disorganization theory examine how community characteristics influence crime. That approach, however glosses over the fact that the distribution of community advantages and disadvantages (CAD) has structural origins, and that the distribution of CAD is also an indicator of the kinds of social, economic and ecological injustice communities face. Building on observations recently made by Moloney and Chambliss concerning the integration of state and green criminological research, this article explores the structural origins of CAD, how taking a political economic view of CAD relates to the distribution of crime and injustice in communities, and how a CAD approach promotes the integration of state crime, radical criminological and green criminological research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Drawing from a social disorganization perspective, this research addresses the effect of immigration on crime within new destinations-places that have experienced significant recent growth in immigration over the last two decades. Methods: Fixed effects regression analyses are run on a sample of n = 1252 places, including 194 new destinations, for the change in crime from 2000 to the 2005-2007 period. Data are drawn from the 2000 Decennial Census, 2005-2007 American Community Survey, and the Uniform Crime Reports. Places included in the sample had a minimum population of 20,000 as of the 2005-07 ACS. New destinations are defined as places where the foreign-born have increased by 150 % or more since 1990 and with a minimum foreign-born population of 1000 in 2007. Results: Results indicate new destinations experienced greater declines in crime, relative to the rest of the sample. Moreover, new destinations with greater increases in foreign-born experienced greater declines in their rates of crime. Additional predictors of change in crime include change in socioeconomic disadvantage, the adult-child ratio, and population size. Conclusions: Results fail to support a disorganization view of the effect of immigration on crime in new destinations and are more in line with the emerging community resource perspective. Limitations and suggestions for future directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]