Author: Jargowsky, Paul A.
Title: Cause or Consequence? Suburbanization and Crime in U.S. Metropolitan Areas
Summary: Inner-city crime is a motivating factor for middle-class flight, and therefore crime is a cause of suburbanization. Movement of the middle- and upper-classes to the suburbs, in turn, isolates the poor in central city ghettos and barrios. Sociologists and criminologists have argued that the concentration of poverty creates an environment within which criminal behavior becomes normative, leading impressionable youth to adopt criminal lifestyles. Moreover, from the perspective of routine activity theory, the deterioration of social capital in high-poverty areas reduces the capacity for guardianship. Therefor, suburbanization may also cause crime. This study argues that prior research has not distinguished between the causal and compositional effects of suburbanization on crime. The study shows that the causal component can be identified by linking metropolitan-level crime rates, rather than central-city crime rates, to measures of suburbanization. Using UCR and Census data from 2000, the study finds a positive relationship betwen suburbanization and metropolitan crime.
Details: Ann Arbor, MI: National Poverty Center, 2008. 30p.
Source: Internet Resource; National Poverty Center Working Paper Series #8-12
Year: 2008
Country: United States
URL:
Shelf Number: 119141
Keywords:
Metropolitan AreasNeighborhoodsPovertySuburban CrimeSuburbanization |
