Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-f9bf7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-14T22:41:10.122Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Economic Deprivation and Neighborhood Crime Rates, 1960–1980

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Robert J. Bursik Jr.  and
Harold G. Grasmick
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The social disorganization model of crime and delinquency generally has argued that the socioeconomic composition of neighborhoods is related to rates of illegal behavior only to the extent that it increases the likelihood of residential turnover and racial/ethnic heterogeneity. Such an orientation reflects the traditional assumption of human ecology that urban areas are characterized by continual processes of residential upgrading as groups become progressively assimilated into the economic structure of the community and have more economic resources at their disposal. However, the validity of the indirect effect hypothesis may have become questionable in the many cities that have experienced a significant economic decline during the last few decades, thereby leading to the creation of an immobile underclass population. We examine here the relative validity of the indirect effect hypothesis in Chicago's neighborhoods during 1960 and 1980. While the findings generally support the traditional indirect effect assumption of social disorganization, they also emphasize the need to consider the economic and political contexts in which these communities are embedded.

Type
Symposium: Crime, Class, and Community—An Emerging Paradigm
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , 1993 , pp. 263 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 by The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

The authors would like to acknowledge the very helpful, constructive and insightful comments of John Hagan, Al Liska, and Susan Silbey on an earlier version of this article.

References

Braithwaite, John (1979) Inequality, Crime, and Public Policy. London: Rout-ledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Bursik, Robert J. Jr. (1984) “Urban Dynamics and Ecological Studies of Delinquency,” 63 Social Forces 393.Google Scholar
Bursik, Robert J. Jr. (1986) “Ecological Stability and the Dynamics of Delinquency,” in Reiss, A. J. & Tonry, M., eds., Communities and Crime. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bursik, Robert J. Jr. (1989) “Political Decisionmaking and Ecological Models of Delinquency: Conflict and Consensus,” in Messner, S. F., Krohn, M. D., & Liska, A. E., eds., Theoretical Integration in the Study of Deviance and Crime. Albany: State Univ. of New York Press.Google Scholar
Bursik, Robert J. Jr., & Grasmick, Harold G. (1993) Neighborhoods and Crime: The Dimensions of Effective Community Control. New York: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Chicago Fact Book Consortium, ed. (1984) Local Community Fact Book: Chicago Metropolitan Area. Chicago: Chicago Review Press.Google Scholar
Clelland, Donald, & Carter, Timothy J. (1980) “The New Myth of Class and Crime,” 18 Criminology 319.Google Scholar
Curry, G. David, & Spergel, Irving A. (1988) “Gang Homicide, Delinquency and Community,” 26 Criminology 381.Google Scholar
Dawley, David (1992) A Nation of Lords. 2d ed. Prospect Heights, IL: Wave-land Press.Google Scholar
Erlanger, Howard S. (1979) “Estrangement, Machismo, and Gang Violence,” 60 Social Science Q. 235.Google Scholar
Felson, Marcus, & Cohen, Lawrence E. (1980) “Human Ecology and Crime: A Routine Activity Approach,” 8 Human Ecology 389.Google Scholar
Frey, William H., & Speare, Alden (1988) Regional and Metropolitan Growth and Decline in the United States. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Gordon, Robert A. (1967) “Issues in the Ecological Study of Delinquency,” 32 American Sociological Rev. 927.Google Scholar
Hawley, Amos H. (1944) “Ecology and Human Ecology,” 23 Social Forces 398.Google Scholar
Hawley, Amos H. (1950) Human Ecology: A Theory of Community Structure. New York: Ronald Press.Google Scholar
Hunter, Albert J. (1985) “Private, Parochial and Public Social Orders: The Problem of Crime and Incivility in Urban Communities,” in Suttles, G. D. & Zald, M. N., eds., The Challenge of Social Control: Citizenship and Institution Building in Modern Society. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing.Google Scholar
Jankowski, Martin Sanchez (1991) Islands in the Street: Gangs and American Urban Society. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kitagawa, Evelyn M., & Taeuber, Karl E., eds. (1963) Local Community Fact Book. Chicago Metropolitan Area, 1960. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kornhauser, Ruth Rosner (1978) Social Sources of Delinquency. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Land, Kenneth C., McCall, Patricia L., & Cohen, Lawrence E. (1990) “Structural Covariates of Homicide Rates: Are There Any Invariances across Time and Social Space?” 87 American J. of Sociology 413.Google Scholar
Lewis, Dan A., & Salem, Greta (1986) Fear of Crime, Incivility, and the Production of a Social Problem. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Logan, John R., & Molotch, Harvey L. (1987) Urban Fortunesrontiers: The Political Economy of Place. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Mayer, Neil S. (1983) “How Neighborhood Development Programs Succeed and Grow: A Survey,” in Clay, P. L. & Hollister, R. M., eds., Neighborhood Policy and Planning. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
McCarthy, John D., & Zald, Mayer N. (1987) “Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory,” in Zald, M. N. & McCarthy, J. D., eds., Social Movements in an Organizational Society. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Messner, Steven F. (1982) “Poverty, Inequality, and the Urban Homicide Rate,” 20 Criminology 103.Google Scholar
Messner, Steven F., & Tardiff, Kenneth (1986) “Economic Inequality and Levels of Homicide: An Analysis of Urban Neighborhoods,” 24 Criminology 297.Google Scholar
Molotch, Harvey (1976) “The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place,” 82 American J. of Sociology 309.Google Scholar
Moore, Joan W. (1978) Homeboys. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Moore, Joan W. 1988) “Introduction: Gangs and the Underclass: A Comparative Perspective,” in Hagedorn, J. M., ed., People and Folks: Gangs, Crime and the Underclass in a Rustbelt City. Chicago: Lake View Press.Google Scholar
Park, Robert E., & Burgess, Ernest W. (1924) Introduction to the Science of Sociology. 2d ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Patterson, E. Britt (1991) “Poverty, Income Inequality, and Community Crime Rates,” 29 Criminology 755.Google Scholar
Sampson, Robert J. (1987) “Communities and Crime,” in Gottfredson, M. R. & Hirschi, T., eds., Positive Criminology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Sampson, Robert J., & Groves, W. Byron (1989) “Community Structure and Crime: Testing Social-Disorganization Theory,” 94 American J. of Sociology 774.Google Scholar
Sampson, Robert J., & Wilson, William Julius (1991) “Toward a Theory of Race, Crime, and Urban Inequality.” Presented at Annual Meetings of American Society of Criminology, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Shaw, Clifford R., & McKay, Henry D. (1942) Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, Clifford R., & McKay, Henry D. (1969) Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas. 2d ed. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Shaw, Clifford R., Zorbaugh, Frederick M., McKay, Henry D., & Cottrell, Leonard S. (1929) Delinquency Areas. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Douglas A., & Jarjoura, G. Roger (1988) “Social Structure and Criminal Victimization,” 25 J. of Research in Crime & Delinquency 27.Google Scholar
Spergel, Irving A., & Korbelik, John (1979) “The Local Community Service System and ISOS: An Interorganizational Analysis.” Executive Report to the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission. Chicago: Illinois Law Enforcement Commission.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Mercer L. (1989) “Getting Paid”: Youth Crime and Work in the Inner City. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Taub, Richard P., Surgeon, George P., Lindholm, Sara, Ottim, Phyllis Betts, & Bridges, Amy (1977) “Urban Voluntary Associations, Locality Based and Externally Induced,” 83 American J. of Sociology 425.Google Scholar
Taylor, Ralph B., & Covington, Jeanette (1988) “Neighborhood Changes in Ecology and Violence,” 26 Criminology 553.Google Scholar
Tittle, Charles R. (1983) “Social Class and Criminal Behavior: A Critique of the Theoretical Foundation,” 62 Social Forces 334.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1972) County and City Fact Book 1972. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1984) County and City Fact Book 1983. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce.Google Scholar
Wacquant, Loic J. D., & Wilson, William Julius (1989) “The Cost of Racial and Class Exclusion in the Inner City,” 501 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 8.Google Scholar
Wilson, William Julius (1987) The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Zorbaugh, Harvey W. (1929) The Gold Coast and the Slum. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar