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Purpose: To compare the role of neighborhood social disorganization factors on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnosis rates in urban and rural areas in Florida, we conducted an ecologic study of HIV diagnosis rates during 2013‐2017 and social disorganization components, including concentrated disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, and residential instability. Methods: Indices of social disorganization components were obtained from principal component analyses of American Community Survey variables for 910 postal codes. Rural/urban classification was based on the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Urban Commuting Area codes. Using multivariable linear regression, the relationship between social disorganization indices and HIV diagnosis rates was assessed. Findings: The only social disorganization index that was significantly higher in rural than urban areas was concentrated disadvantage. In rural areas, the concentrated disadvantage index was significantly associated with HIV diagnosis rates (P =.007) when controlling for the other social disorganization factors but was no longer significant after additionally controlling for prevalence of people with an HIV diagnosis who were not virally suppressed. In urban areas, even after controlling for prevalence of people with HIV who were not virally suppressed, lower male‐to‐female population ratios and higher scores of residential instability, concentrated disadvantage, and LatinX/immigrant density indices were associated with higher HIV diagnosis rates (all P <.01). Conclusions: In addition to improving community levels of viral suppression, the community contextual environment, including the rurality of the environment, needs to be considered in strategies to end the HIV epidemic in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic literature has placed increased focus on understanding the complexities of human trafficking cases, but a gap in literature persists on assessing structural determinants that may impact the number of identified human trafficking arrests. As such, using administrative data on human trafficking arrests from 2013 to 2017, in the present study we examine the influence that macro-level social disorganization indicators, physical characteristics, and criminality rates have on human trafficking arrests in the state of Florida. Results reveal that counties with a higher number of human trafficking arrests were associated with higher levels of residential instability, a greater count of police agencies, as well as, lower levels of concentrated disadvantage and drug arrest rates. We close with directions for future research and anti-trafficking policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent foreclosure crisis in the USA has called for a revival in social disorganization research to examine how communities are being affected. While a number of studies have examined the direct relationship between social disorganization and crime in communities plagued by foreclosure, they have failed to look at the link between social disorganization and real estate indicators. This study fills this gap by examining Orange County, Florida in 2010 using realtor-reported transactional information, a type of data that are rich in transactional information but has yet to be utilized. The findings of this study indicate that negative social capital significantly predicts areas with higher concentrations of foreclosures (positive relationship) and traditional sales (inverse relationship). The proportion of Fair Housing Administration/Veterans Administration loans, the average days on market and the proportion of affluent households in the community also significantly predict these transactions. Limitations of the study as well as directions for future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined the utility of social disorganization theory as an explanation for child sexual abuse with a focus on differentiating single and multiple victim cases. Drawing on 1,172 child sexual abuse cases (including 159 cases with multiple victims) in Orange County, Florida, from 2004 to 2006, the present study considered case characteristics and elements of social disorganization as potential predictors of child sexual abuse cases involving single and multiple victims. We found that social disorganization theory does not successfully predict the locations of multiple victim child sexual abuse incidents and is not useful for distinguishing between child sexual abuse incidents with single or multiple victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding factors related to the clearing of criminal cases by law enforcement is an important, but understudied, issue in criminal justice. Through an examination of 2,437 sexual assault cases reported to the Orange County (Florida) Sheriffs Office and Orlando Police Department between 2004 and 2006, this study examines the ability of case and community characteristics to predict the outcome of investigations. Results show that ages of victims and offenders are significant predic-tors of cleared cases, but that measures of community social disorganization are not significantly related to sexual assault investigation outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the spatial and contextual features of race and ethnic-specific stop rates, this paper combines structural indicators of concentrated disadvantage and social disorganization with citizen-police contact data on more than 61,000 police stops in the Miami-Dade area. While the existing race-biased policing literature tends to vary greatly in scope and analytical strategy, research that takes into account spatial dynamics coupled with neighborhood characteristics when examining police stop rates has yet to be offered. Furthermore, given the racial and ethnic diversity of the Miami-Dade communities, we assess the often neglected issue of police stops involving Hispanic drivers, in addition to those of whites and African Americans. Our spatial analysis, which allows us to account empirically for the theoretical likelihood that what occurs in one neighborhood is influenced by nearby neighborhoods, reveals differences in spatial clustering of stops involving racial and ethnic groups. Spatial multivariate regression analysis shows that racial composition and levels of violence are the most consistent predictors of race and ethnic based stop rates. Additional analysis finds that the effect of racial composition on stop rates is conditioned by community levels of violence. Our results show the importance of spatial analysis to understanding the racial and ethnic disparities in police stops at the macro-level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With few exceptions, recent investigations have found levels of criminal involvement to be lower among immigrants than among the native born. We extend this line of research by examining arrest data for native-born citizens, citizens born outside the United States, naturalized citizens, and noncitizens in Orange County (Orlando), Florida, for homicide, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault. Arrest rates for noncitizens are generally lower than those for the native born and similar to those of naturalized and foreign-born citizens, but their sexual assault rate is the highest of the four groups. The concentration of immigrants has no significant impact on arrest rates for native- and foreign-born citizens at the census-tract level. Additional research is necessary to more fully understand the linkage between immigration and crime, but mounting evidence that the new immigrants to not contribute to elevated crime levels in urban areas should be an important component of policy discussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although illicit drug activity occurs within local communities, past quantitative research on drug markets and violent crime in the United States has been conducted mainly at the city level. The authors use neighborhood-level data from the city of Miami to test hypotheses regarding the effect of drug activity and traditional indicators of social disorganization on rates of aggravated assault and robbery. The results show that drug activity has robust effects on violent crime that are independent of other disorganization indicators. The authors also find that drug activity is concentrated in neighborhoods with low rates of immigration, less linguistic isolation and ethnic heterogeneity, and where nondrug accidental deaths are prevalent. The authors find no independent effect of neighborhood racial composition on drug activity or violent crime. The results suggest that future neighborhood-level research on social disorganization and violent crime should devote explicit attention to the disorganizing and violence-producing effects of illicit drug activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]