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Private short‐term letting via Airbnb has exploded in the last decade, yet little is known about how this affects neighborhood crime rates. We estimate the association between Airbnb short‐term letting activity and six types of police‐reported crime in London, as well as an intervening mechanism, collective efficacy. We estimate these associations with maximum likelihood dynamic panel models with fixed effects (ML‐SEM) using data on Airbnb lettings in 4,835 London neighborhoods observed for 13 calendar quarters. We explore mechanisms for the observed effects using multiple lag specifications and by disaggregating lettings into entire properties and spare rooms. We find that Airbnb activity is positively related to robbery, burglary, theft, and violence. These associations are attributable to lettings for entire properties rather than for rooms. Furthermore, associations are contemporaneous, as is consistent with an opportunity mechanism, rather than delayed, as would be consistent with a social control mechanism. Similarly, we find that the association between Airbnb activity and crime is not mediated by collective efficacy. Overall, these results suggest short‐term letting contributes to neighborhood crime and these effects are more likely to be attributable to changes in criminal opportunity than erosion of neighborhood social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Literature on the influence of homelessness on crime is lacking, particularly at the neighborhood level. This study seeks to understand how homelessness affects crime levels in a large city in the United States. Data/Methods: Crime data, homeless count data, and neighborhood characteristics are obtained from three government public data sources. OLS Regression and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) are utilized to determine the relationship between homelessness and crime on a global and local level. Results: The analyses revealed that homelessness is significantly, positively associated with crime, even when controlling for macro-level correlates of crime. The effect size of homelessness on crime varies across neighborhoods. Conclusions/Implications: Policy implications based on findings of the current study and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban greenspace (UGS) has been recently linked to public safety. Criminologists, however, have been largely absent from the discussion about this association, despite having important theoretical tools and empirical findings to contribute. In the current study, we review the prominent criminological perspectives that may be used to explain the association between UGS and crime. Furthermore, we draw from prior work to extend beyond the question of whether UGS affects crime to the more crucial question of when it does. Using a sample of block groups in Washington, D.C., we examine the association between two measures of UGS—tree canopy coverage and noncanopy vegetation coverage—and violent and property crime. We also assess the moderating effects of antecedents to social disorganization (poverty and homeownership) on the association between UGS and crime. Our results suggest that both types of UGS are associated with fewer crimes, even while controlling for a range of criminogenic factors. The effects of tree canopy coverage appear to be crime general, while the effects of noncanopy vegetation coverage only apply to violent crime. The effects of tree canopy, however, are weaker in communities characterized by high levels of poverty and low levels of homeownership. [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]

Shaw and McKay advanced social disorganization theory in the 1930s, kick-starting a large body of research on communities and crime. Studies emphasize individual impacts of poverty, residential instability, and racial/ethnic heterogeneity by examining their independent effects on crime, adopting a variable-centered approach. We use a “neighborhood-centered” approach that considers how structural forces combine into unique constellations that vary across communities, with consequences for crime. Examining neighborhoods in Southern California we: (1) identify neighborhood typologies based on levels of poverty, instability, and heterogeneity; (2) explore how these typologies fit within a disorganization framework and are spatially distributed across the region; and (3) examine how these typologies are differentially associated with crime. Results reveal nine neighborhood types with varying relationships to crime.

The Santa Isabel neighborhood faces important changes in its commerce and consumer habits. This work explores, through interviews and field observation, the effects of new lifestyles on the environment, with the production of new job opportunities but also a general increase in prices, social fragmentation and an incipient pressure for displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article combines administrative data on housing transactions with monthly crime data for the years 2014–18 to investigate the link between residential turnover and crime. Using a panel of 34,753 small neighbourhoods in England and Wales as well as street-level data for London, estimates from models with multiple fixed effects suggest that higher turnover is associated with higher overall crime rates. These effects are small and driven by increases in property and violent crime. Using information on price growth, I document differential effects for high-turnover, high price growth ('attractive') and high turnover, low price growth ('declining') areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shaw and McKay advanced social disorganization theory in the 1930s, kick-starting a large body of research on communities and crime. Studies emphasize individual impacts of poverty, residential instability, and racial/ethnic heterogeneity by examining their independent effects on crime, adopting a variable-centered approach. We use a “neighborhood-centered” approach that considers how structural forces combine into unique constellations that vary across communities, with consequences for crime. Examining neighborhoods in Southern California we: (1) identify neighborhood typologies based on levels of poverty, instability, and heterogeneity; (2) explore how these typologies fit within a disorganization framework and are spatially distributed across the region; and (3) examine how these typologies are differentially associated with crime. Results reveal nine neighborhood types with varying relationships to crime.

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]

The formative work of Jane Jacobs underscores the combination of "eyes on the street" and trust between residents in deterring crime. Nevertheless, little research has assessed the effects of residential street monitoring on crime due partly to a lack of data measuring this process. We argue that neighborhood-level rates of households with dogs captures part of the residential street monitoring process core to Jacobs' hypotheses and test whether this measure is inversely associated with property and violent crime rates. Data from a large-scale marketing survey of Columbus, OH, USA residents (2013; n  = 43,078) are used to measure census block group-level (n  = 595) rates of households with dogs. Data from the Adolescent Health and Development in Context study are used to measure neighborhood-level rates of trust. Consistent with Jacobs' hypotheses, results indicate that neighborhood concentration of households with dogs is inversely associated with robbery, homicide, and, to a less consistent degree, aggravated assault rates within neighborhoods high in trust. In contrast, results for property crime suggest that the inverse association of dog concentration is independent of levels of neighborhood trust. These associations are observed net of controls for neighborhood sociodemographic characteristics, temporally lagged crime, and spatial lags of trust and dog concentration. This study offers suggestive evidence of crime deterrent benefits of local street monitoring and dog presence and calls attention to the contribution of pets to other facets of neighborhood social organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using survey data from a sample of 1,435 Ukrainian and Russian adults, this study examines the interplay between collective processes, individual-level self-control, and offending. Multilevel regression models estimate the direct effects of neighborhood-level self-control, perceptions of sanction risks, and strain on criminal behavior, showing how these contextual factors condition the association between individual-level self-control and offending. Findings suggest that collective self-control and perceived sanction risks are important moderators of the self-control–crime relationship at the individual level, highlighting the protective effect of high self-control on offending in neighborhoods with strong collective self-control and sanctioning climates. Overall, the study stresses the importance of exploring the role of neighborhood processes beyond social disorganization in the self-control–crime nexus. [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]

Background. The purpose of this study was to identify latent classes of polysubstance use among adolescents in Jamaica and the role of neighborhood factors in the association with polysubstance use class membership. Methods. This secondary analysis utilized a national cross-sectional household drug use survey conducted across 357 households in Jamaica (April 2016-July 2016) among a total of 4,625 individuals. A total of 750 adolescents (11-17 years) were included in this analysis. Latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted to identify polysubstance use patterns as well as latent neighborhood constructs. Neighborhood factors included social disorganization, concentrated disadvantage, community resources, community violence, and police station concentration. Multinomial regression analysis was implemented to evaluate the association between polysubstance use class membership and latent classes of neighborhood factors. Result. The prevalence of lifetime polysubstance use was 27.56%. Four classes of polysubstance use were identified by comparing a series of five class models. The Bootstrap Likelihood Ratio Test (BLRT) indicated a good fit for the four-class model (< 0:001). The prevalence of alcohol latent classes was: (1) heavy alcohol users and experimental smokers (Class I) (15.20%), (2) most hazardous polysubstance users (Class II) (5.33%), (3) heavy smokers and moderate alcohol users (Class III) (7.07%), and (4) experimental alcohol users (Class IV) (72.44%). Three classes of neighborhoods were identified by comparing a series of four-class models. The prevalence of the neighborhood classes was: (1) low social disorganization and disadvantage (Class I) (58.93%), (2) high social disorganization and moderate disadvantage (Class II) (10.93%), and (3) high social disorganization related to perceived drug use and disadvantage (Class III) (30.13%). The BLRT indicated a good fit for the three-class model (pD<0:004). Multinomial regression analysis indicated that adolescents living in neighborhoods with high disorder and moderate disadvantage (Class II) were 2.43 times (odds ratio (OR)) D 2.43, confidence interval (CI)) D 1.30-4.56) more likely to be heavy alcohol users and experimental smokers (Class I) compared to experimental alcohol users, adjusting for sex, age, ethnicity, religion, and income. Class II of neighborhood classes presented with the highest levels of community violence (100%), perceived disorder crime (64.6%), police station concentration (6.7%), and community resources (low resources is 87.6%), while the concentrated disadvantage was moderate (14.8%). Conclusions. Alcohol polysubstance use latent classes were identified among youth in this context. Neighborhoods with high disorder and moderate disadvantage (Class II) were associated with a higher likelihood of polysubstance use. The role of neighborhood conditions in shaping adolescent polysubstance use should be considered in policy, prevention, and treatment interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shaw and McKay's social disorganization theory has provided a framework to examine the relationship between community-level structural variables and neighborhood crime. Although empirical support for the theory has been widely demonstrated using property and violent crime data, the body of literature examining the theory's applicability to intimate partner violence (IPV) is more limited. Further, much of the existing literature in this area applies the theory's macro-level variables to individual outcomes instead of assessing community effects. Using negative binomial regression to analyze incident data from the Austin (TX) Police Department and demographic information from the United States Census Bureau, this study assesses the relationship between concentrated disadvantage, racial/ethnic heterogeneity, residential instability, and the geographic distribution of IPV incidents in a major U.S. city with no racial or ethnic majority. The independent variables of interest were constructed using principal axis factoring, and a spatial lag variable was included in the model to control for spatial clustering. The analysis showed that concentrated disadvantage was significantly, positively associated with annual counts of IPV incidents in neighborhoods, as was the control variable total crime reports. These results demonstrate that the geographic distribution of IPV is influenced by community factors. They underscore the importance of considering community-wide prevention and intervention efforts in tandem with individual services to those impacted by IPV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the ecological reliability, convergent validity and ecological stability of neighbourhood (dis)organizational processes measured by means of two methods: inhabitant surveys and the so-called key informant analysis technique. Considering that ecological processes play a major role in many contemporary criminological theories and research, it is vital to take into account methodological challenges and to question the reliability, validity and stability of the measures reflecting these underlying processes. (Dis)organizational processes are predominantly measured by means of questionnaires surveying neighbourhood inhabitants. To yield ecologically reliable and valid measures this approach requires large numbers of respondents. In this study we analyse the relationships between ecological measures of neighbourhood processes based on surveys of inhabitants versus key informants. The findings suggest that key informants can provide reliable, valid and stable measures of (dis)organizational neighbourhood processes. Therefore, the key informant analysis technique is an essential complementary, or even substitutive, method in the measurement of neighbourhood processes; shared survey-method variance is eliminated and it is possible to survey fewer key informants than inhabitants to obtain reliable and valid information on social trust and disorder. Nevertheless, this method is not suitable for measuring all neighbourhood processes, such as informal social control. Therefore, outstanding challenges and avenues for future research are discussed as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that one of the most important benefits of urban regeneration projects implemented to solve the problems in disadvantaged neighborhoods is to reduce crime rates. This claim has been the subject of various quantitative and qualitative research. However, the results of research based on Social Disorganization, Broken Windows and Routine Activity Theories are far from drawing a clear picture of the direction of this relationship. The relationship shows a curvilinear pattern with respect to time. The spatial shift of crime makes it difficult to detect the impact of urban regeneration on crime. In addition to quantitative studies at the structural level, qualitative studies focusing on how urban regeneration affects the social networks in the neighborhood offer the opportunity to understand this relationship at the micro level. Urban regeneration often destroys existing social networks and fails to create a new community. It can lead to the formation of communities that share the same space but live parallel lives. This makes residents vulnerable to crime. Additionally, urban regeneration, which aims to destroy the criminal networks in the neighborhood, has the potential to increase crime rates rather than reduce them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies show that residents from urban, high-risk neighborhoods fair worse on multiple behavioral and health outcomes than their counterparts from more socially and economically advantaged neighborhoods. However, few research efforts have been devoted to examining how formerly incarcerated individuals' concerns over neighborhood environment are associated with reentry outcomes. Using longitudinal data that captured the reentry experiences of individuals released from prison, the present study quantifies how returning citizens' concerns over neighborhood environment predict their social withdrawal and mental health deterioration. Findings suggest that when respondents' post-release family bonds, financial difficulty, drug use, and past mental health histories are all taken into account, their concerns over neighborhood environment exert a significant and positive effect on social withdrawal, depression, and hostility. Returning citizens who believe it is hard to stay out of trouble and prison in their neighborhoods tend to avoid social interactions with others and experience depression and increased hostility and vigilance. Implications for reentry programing and interventions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationships between racial heterogeneity and crime across blocks (N = 103,168) located in the greater Southern California region. We estimate negative binomial regression models that test for the effects of racial heterogeneity in conjunction with different functional form and spatial scaling considerations. Racial diversity in the block has a crime-reducing effect, whereas racial diversity in the area surrounding the block generally has crime-producing capabilities, although at very high levels of diversity, the effect reverses and becomes crime-reducing. We also illustrate an interaction effect between racial heterogeneity in the block and racial heterogeneity in the surrounding area. The pattern of results provides a nuanced understanding of how the racial composition of an area has consequences for crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Violence events tend to cluster together geospatially. Various features of communities and their residents have been highlighted as explanations for such clustering in the literature. One reliable correlate of violence is neighborhood instability. Research on neighborhood instability indicates that such instability can be measured as property tax delinquency, yet no known work has contrasted external and internal sources of instability in predicting neighborhood violence. To this end we collected data on violence events, company and personal property tax delinquency, population density, race, income, food stamps, and alcohol outlets for each of Richmond, Virginia's 148 neighborhoods. We constructed and compared ordinary least-squares (OLS) to geographically weighted regression (GWR) models before constructing a final algorithm-selected GWR model. Our results indicated that the tax delinquency of company-owned properties (e.g., rental homes, apartments) was the only variable in our model (R2 = 0.62) that was associated with violence in all but four Richmond neighborhoods. We replicated this analysis using violence data from a later point in time which yielded largely identical results. These findings indicate that external sources of neighborhood instability may be more important to predicting violence than internal sources. Our results further provide support for social disorganization theory and point to opportunities to expand this framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the relevance of social disorganization and collective efficacy in accounting for neighbourhood inequalities in the exposure to crime. Specifically, it questions the potential of community and voluntary organizations to enhance informal social control and reduce exposure to crime. It utilizes calls-for-service (incident) data for Greater Manchester (UK) and a Bayesian spatio-temporal modelling approach. Contrary to expectations, the research finds that measures of social disorganization (concentrated disadvantage aside) and collective efficacy hold a limited effect on neighbourhood exposure to crime. We discuss the implications of these findings for criminological inquiry and theoretical development, highlighting the necessity of such endeavour to account for the national political-economy and welfare regime of research settings [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we analyze the role played by materiality in the reproduction of caring practices in urban neighborhoods. Our theoretical aim is to show the capacity of social practice theory to combine and reintegrate the perspectives of sociology, anthropology, and geography through the concept of neighborhood caring, which refers to the behavioral, symbolic, and spatial dimension of people’s attitudes toward their neighbors as well as to the place they live in. Based on qualitative research in six urban housing estates in three cities, we want to examine four modes through which materialities are entangled in the invisible work of the everyday collective accomplishments of neighborhood well-being, that is: (1) integrating individual performances into collective endeavors of caring practices; (2) creating conditions for the orchestration (or disorganization) of practices of caring undertaken by a variety of entities (i.e., private and public, institutional and non-institutional); (3) being an element of social practice involved in the collective processes of negotiating and reflecting; and (4) delivering an emotional component facilitating or hampering day-to-day relations and interactions as preconditions of practices of neighborly care. [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]

In this study, we use generalized estimating equation (GEE) models to analyze how rates of eviction correspond to homicide, robbery, and burglary rates across all residential neighborhoods in Philadelphia from 2006 through 2016. We assess the moderating role of neighborhood poverty accounting for residential mobility, economic disadvantage, and community composition. We find that eviction is associated with all three types of crime in fully controlled models. Additionally, neighborhood poverty significantly moderates this relationship for robbery and burglary, but not homicide. We discuss the implications of these results with attention to policy opportunities to reduce eviction and suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines neighborhood economic improvement, what is occurring in nearby neighborhoods, and the consequences for neighborhood crime rates. Negative binomial regression models are estimated to explain the relationship between the increase in average home values (a component of gentrification) and crime in Los Angeles between 1990 and 2000. We find that the spatial context is important, as gentrifying neighborhoods located on the “frontier” of the gentrification process have significantly more aggravated assaults than gentrifying neighborhoods surrounded by neighborhoods also undergoing improvement. Furthermore, this effect is stronger in neighborhoods that began the decade with the highest average home values. Our findings indicate that the extent to which neighborhoods are more or less embedded in a larger process of economic improvement, and where the neighborhood is at in the economic development process, has differential effects on neighborhood crime.

Objectives: Explanations of community violence traditionally reflect a social disorganization perspective, suggesting that neighborhood characteristics affect crime via the intervening mechanism of informal social control. Drawing on Agnew's Macro Strain Theory [MST], we argue that neighborhood characteristics 1) also affect macro-level crime for reasons related to aggregated strain and 2) condition the relationship between micro-level strains and individual violent offending. Methods: Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, we conduct a series of multilevel models examining both the macro- and multi-level relationship between neighborhood characteristics, strain and youth violence. Findings: Results generally support our arguments, suggesting that neighborhood characteristics like concentrated disadvantage 1) remain associated with community violence even after adjusting for multiple measures of informal social control and 2) condition the association between micro-level strain and violent offending. Conclusions: Strain processes, at both the macro and micro-level, play a critical role in the well-established empirical relationship between structural disadvantage and violence. In light of results, community crime control policies should address the ways in which structural disadvantage increases motivation, rather than focusing exclusively on the ways in which it weakens informal social control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to reaffirm the value of collective efficacy as a theory of offending and highlight a crucial individual-level mechanism through which collective efficacy may operate: individual-level perceived collective efficacy—subjective collective efficacy. We highlight the need to distinguish between individual-level perceptions of collective efficacy and the macro-level construct of collective efficacy. Analyzing data from the PHDCN, our study revealed that neighborhood levels of collective efficacy did not exert a direct effect on offending. However, neighborhood-level collective efficacy decreased offending indirectly through individual-level subjective collective efficacy. Our research suggests that scholars need to expand upon their conceptualization of collective efficacy and seek a more nuanced understanding of how collective efficacy operates at the macro and micro levels. In particular, we conclude that subjective collective efficacy should be understood as a cognitive landscape—a way of seeing the world—and be given theoretical and empirical attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alongside the research on the impact of cumulative trauma on later outcomes, scholars have started to investigate how an accumulation of protective factors may buffer adverse outcomes. However, these studies have failed to consider how one's social context, in particular the levels of social disorganization and immigrant concentration present, may be associated with the accumulation of protective factors. Using data from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, the current study examines how both youth- and neighborhood-level factors predict cumulative positive childhood experiences (PCEs) among justice-involved youth. The results indicated that while immigrant concentration is unassociated with PCE accumulation, social disorganization is negatively associated with the number of PCEs, holding all else constant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Prior research frequently observes a positive cross-sectional relationship between various neighborhood structural characteristics and crime rates, and attributes the causal explanation entirely to these structural characteristics.  We question this assumption theoretically, proposing a household-level model showing that neighborhood crime might also change these structural characteristics.  We test these hypotheses using data on the census tracts in 13 cities over a ten-year period, and our cross-lagged models generally find that, if anything, crime is the stronger causal force in these possible relationships.  Neighborhoods with more crime tend to experience increasing levels of residential instability, more concentrated disadvantage, a diminishing retail environment, and more African Americans ten years later.  Although we find that neighborhoods with more concentrated disadvantage experience increases in violent and property crime, there is no evidence that residential instability increases crime rates ten years later."

This study examines the relationship between structural characteristics and homicide trajectories in South Korean neighborhoods utilizing the systemic model of social disorganization theory as an analytical lens. Group-based trajectory modeling of Korean homicide data across 229 municipal-level sub-national regions between 2008 and 2013 yielded three groups: high-decrease, moderate, and low-stable. The odds of belonging to the high and moderate groups compared to the low-stable group were significantly increased for communities with a higher-level divorce rate and residential instability rate. Social control was significant in the high-decrease group compared to the low-stable group, but had no mediating effect on this relationship. [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]

Research findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between offending and being a victim of crime, whereby victimization is often a consequence of delinquent behavior. Therefore, impacts of explanatory variables on victimization might only occur as a noncausal by-product induced by their influences on delinquency. This study investigates the influences of neighborhood characteristics on violent victimization while also considering the role of delinquency as a potential mediator. Using a sample of 3,065 15-year-old students from a long-term study on crime conducted in Germany, structural equation modeling is applied to examine the influence of neighborhood characteristics on offending and victimization. Additionally, influences on victimization are decomposed into direct and indirect effects to examine mediation via delinquency. The results show that – when analyzing offending and victimization simultaneously – influences on victimization are actually mediated through delinquency. Neighborhood context (disorder, leisure opportunities, perceived safety) mainly shapes offending. This investigation cannot provide evidence for direct influences of neighborhood characteristics on victimization that are independent of a person's delinquent behavior. Effects on violent victimization emerge from mediation via delinquency, particularly violent offending. These findings help to further disentangle impacts on victimization risk and point out implications for crime and victimization prevention within neighborhoods and cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies indicators of social disorganization theory (i.e., concentrated disadvantage, residential instability, and concentrated immigration) to predict officers' use of coercive action during street stops of citizens suspected of criminal activity. It also investigates whether concentrated disadvantage moderates suspects' likelihood of receiving greater levels of police coercive actions when stopped for reasons listed in the New York City Police Department's Unified Form 250 (UF-250). Results from multilevel analyses of stop incidents nested within neighborhoods confirm that certain indicators of social disorganization are associated with officer use of coercive action. Further, suspects stopped in areas marked by concentrated disadvantage are less likely to receive higher levels of police coercive action. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Although the literature has examined the effects of neighborhood structural characteristics on parolee recidivism, the influence of potentially important neighborhood organizations (e.g., service providers) have often been neglected This study examines the effects of two types of service providers on general and technical parole violation reincarcerations, and how these effects vary across time. Parolee data were obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC), and the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (PBPP) for 3,077 parolees released to 209 neighborhoods within Philadelphia. HLM analyses show that although general service providers were associated with increased odds of reincarceration, DOC referred service providers within disadvantaged neighborhoods decreased reincarceration. These effects were strongest during the first six months following release from prison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study links social network methodology with the social disorganization literature to test the effect of block-level social distance on neighborhood perceived crime and disorder. Employing a unique study design that allows creating matrices of social distance (based on demographic characteristics) between 11 residents on each of over 650 blocks at three time points, we find that more socially distant residents perceive more disorder than their neighbors. Consistent with the bridging social capital literature, overall social distance in the block has a curvilinear relationship with perceived crime. And blocks with two cohesive subgroups, based on social distance, have lower levels of perceived disorder. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This article examines the importance of neighborhoods in shaping judicial processing and racial/ethnic disparities in court outcomes. Scholarship instructs that court actors—prosecutors, defense counsel, and judges—make legal decisions with local communities in mind. With the rise of geographic information in arrest records and mapping techniques, greater opportunities exist to evaluate the role of neighborhood context in the juvenile and criminal courts. This article synthesizes research on how the characteristics of neighborhoods where defendants live and/or offend influence judicial processing. Attention is given to how scholars define neighborhoods, identify key neighborhood conditions, and analyze the relationships among places and judicial decisions. Emphasis is also placed on unpacking debates on whether neighborhood conditions diminish or aggravate racial/ethnic disparities in court outcomes, such as incarceration decisions. Its analysis reveals findings of neighborhood effects as well as evidence of neighborhood characteristics widening racial/ethnic differences in judicial processing. This article thus encourages the consideration of community context in disparity studies and policy efforts to improve citizens' access to justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of relative inequality in studies on race, place and crime, existing literature has paid little attention to the possibility of racial differences in the effect of relative inequality at the neighborhood level. I argue the anomie and social disorganization frameworks make competing predictions regarding whether relative inequality aligns with the racial invariance thesis, and assess hypotheses derived from each perspective using data from the 2000 National Neighborhood Crime Study. A comparison of marginal effects derived from multilevel negative binomial regression models indicate relative inequality effects on homicide are larger in neighborhoods comprised primarily by Blacks and Latinos, while effects on robbery and burglary are greater in White, Latino and Integrated areas. My observations add to a growing body of work demonstrating the importance of income inequality for neighborhood crime but suggest the magnitude of the effect varies considerably by crime type and neighborhood ethnoracial composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Sciences in China is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A wide-ranging body of research on the immigration-crime relationship has shown that immigration does not increase community crime levels. However, most prior studies have focused on traditional immigrant destinations or border cities. This study addresses several gaps in this line of research by exploring immigration effects on neighborhood levels of Violent and Property Index crimes for the 2008 to 2014 period in Cincinnati, Ohio – a Midwestern, mid-sized, nontraditional immigrant destination. Overall, our findings are consistent with previous research and indicate that controlling for other factors, the percent foreign-born has largely neutral effects on census tract-level crime rates in Cincinnati. Moreover, our findings show no signs of indirect effects of immigration on crime through neighborhood disadvantage. [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]

Latinos in the US often settle in ethnic enclave neighborhoods, which research and theory suggests have residents who are less engaged in neighborhood activism. However, we know little about the relationship between living in a Latino ethnic enclave compared to other types of neighborhoods and engaging in neighborhood-focused activism among Latinos. This study, therefore, investigates whether both neighborhood organizational resources and neighborhood needs influence participation in neighborhood-focused activism among Chicago Latinos, and especially, whether those relationships are strongest in Latino ethnic enclave neighborhoods. We conducted multilevel logistic regression predicting neighborhood activism among a subsample of Latino respondents from the Chicago Community Adult Health Study but found no significant neighborhood effects. However, we examined only residents of Mexican descent and found that both organizational resources and needs had the largest, positive effects on neighborhood activism in predominantly Mexican descent neighborhoods. This study contributes to our understanding of neighborhood context and Latino engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serial forced displacement, the 'repetitive, coercive upheaval of groups', is examined as a key feature of the ongoing Maafa or Afrikan Holocaust and explored as a primary source of the disruption of Ubuntu in Black communities in the United States. According to Fullilove (2016), disconnecting people from their land, their culture, history, traditions, values, and relationships creates 'root shock' which undermines natural tendencies to exhibit respect, compassion, caring, cooperation, and support of one's fellow human beings, or what South Afrikan people refer to as 'Ubuntu.' African philosophy suggests that Ubuntu is a common moral position passed down over generations by Afrikan people. Its presence has been noted in segregated Black communities, which is illustrative of the retention of Ubuntu amongst Afrikan Americans. American housing policies at the federal, state, and local levels, along with private development initiatives that have led to gentrification of many Black neighbourhoods, are identified as the main culprits in the diminishment of Ubuntu through the uprooting and destruction of numerous thriving Black communities. It is suggested that these housing policies are the most recent examples of serial forced displacement and are at the root of much of the community disorganization, health disparities, violence, and family instability observed in many low-income Black neighbourhoods. The development of cultural standards that prescribe cultural policies which are designed to restore Ubuntu in Black communities is recommended as a palliative for ameliorating the dehumanizing environment created by serial forced displacements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article extends Suttles' (1972) theory of the defended neighborhood by applying the framework to a contemporary context and exploring the social processes that residents of a diverse community used to defend their neighborhood from change. Drawing on data from an ethnography of Beverly—a stably diverse, highly efficacious, upper middle‐class neighborhood on Chicago's far southwest side—I identify and examine three defensive processes used by residents: cultivating neighbors and a culture of surveillance, demarcating and enforcing boundaries, and the creation of an insider housing market. I show how residents employed these neighborhood defense processes to maintain desirable conditions and stable diversity in their community. Defensive processes, however, also resulted in collateral consequences for Black residents, who experienced more scrutiny and surveillance than did White residents. These findings demonstrate how residents' defensive processes can promote neighborhood stability, but may also result in the social exclusion of perceived outsiders including their own neighbors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Most prior research testing the hypothesis of the social disorganization theory that residential instability increases crime has used cross-sectional data. Using a unique dataset linking home sales address matched to census tracts with crime data in Los Angeles, we test the direction of this relationship using a six-year panel data design. We also test whether crime acts as a generator of transition and decline in neighborhoods by testing its effect on property values the following year. Our findings suggest little evidence that home sales volatility in one year leads to more property or violent crime the following year.  Instead, higher levels of tract property and violent crime in one year lead to more home sales the following year. This effect of high crime rates is exacerbated in tracts with high levels of racial/ethnic heterogeneity, suggesting that such tracts may engender a distinct combination of fear and uncertainty in their residents, leading to more turn over. We also find that tracts with more violent crime one year have lower property values the following year, suggesting a general process of decline."

Although criminology presumes that the physical structural qualities of neighbourhoods have important consequences for crime, there is a dearth of research to test the effects of different land uses on crime rates. Using data on a sample of Philadelphia census blocks, I compute the percentage of the block area classified into seven land use categories, and I use Poisson models to test the localized and broader spatial impact of each of these land uses on crime, controlling for key sociodemographic characteristics. The results show that to effectively understand the interplay between physical structure and crime rates, researchers should disaggregate nonresidential land uses, account for the surrounding environment in which neighbourhoods are situated and analyse a specific form of moderation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine use-of-force incidents as neighborhood processes to understand how rates and levels of use-of-force vary across New York City. We suggest that there are two distinct outcomes of force by the police: number of use-of-force incidents and level of force. Applying theories of racial threat, social disorganization, and Klinger's ecological theory of policing, we conceptualize use-of-force as a neighborhood phenomenon rather than individual events. Our results suggest that rates and levels of force operate in some distinct ways. In particular, while we find that use-of-force is concentrated in Black neighborhoods, and is also more severe in Black neighborhoods, neighborhoods with higher racial and ethnic heterogeneity have decreasing force incidents, but with increasing severity. This may reflect different types of policing, with high rates of low-level police harassment occurring in primarily poorer, Black neighborhoods, and more isolated but severe incidents occurring in middle-income and wealthier mixed neighborhoods. [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]

Since the 1970s, racial diversity within neighborhoods and cities has been increasing. Although social disorganization theorists have long argued that diversity reduces social cohesion leading to increases in crime, the association between diversity and crime may be more nuanced than previously thought. More specifically, neighborhood processes occur within the broader context of the cities within which they are embedded. The current investigation uses data from 9,593 census tracts nested within 91 large U.S. cities from the National Neighborhood Crime Study (NNCS) to test whether the association between neighborhood diversity and crime differs by city diversity. Results indicate an interaction between neighborhood and city diversity, such that the effect of neighborhood diversity on crime becomes weaker as city diversity increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]