The diversity of the U.S. urban population has increased dramatically in recent decades, yet the processes through which population diversity may be driving neighborhood change remain insufficientl...

Neighborhood Diversity and the Rise of Artist Hotspots: Exploring the Creative Class Thesis Through a Neighborhood Change Lens

In this paper the development of criminology, especially from a sociological viewpoint in Japan, is analyzed. Before World War II psychiatrists took the initiative in the development of criminology. After the war sociology became a popular academic subject. Then, sociologists began to research crimes and criminals. Under the influence of theories on criminology in the United States sociological criminology has been developed especially after the establishment of the Japanese Association of Sociological Criminology in 1974. In this paper I evaluate the development of sociological criminology, and point out some problems by which this criminology may wane in the future.

Development of Criminology in Japan from a Sociological Perspective

Much has been written about Aboriginal night patrols in recent decades; this has typically been ethnographic or evaluative. However, little work has been done to situate night patrols against wider historic trends in criminal justice and theorize their contribution in relation to neoliberal regimes of justice. Drawing on data collected as part of an evaluation of Aboriginal night patrols in New South Wales, this paper develops a critical approach to understanding night patrols. We interrogate the notion of ‘community’—central to the philosophy and practice of night patrols—examining the limitations of community forms of justice in challenging dominant understandings of crime and addressing the structural causes of crime.

Critical Reflections on the Operation of Aboriginal Night Patrols

On one level, motor vehicles might represent the possibility of unfettered freedom, escape (from government authority) and autonomy through providing work and leisure opportunities. On another level, in remote places, ‘hybridised’ and ‘Indigenised’ vehicles have been appropriated to speak to economic and cultural realities of everyday life. This chapter considers how night patrols may articulate expressions of decoloniality by enhancing Aboriginal social capital or what we refer to here as ‘collective efficacy’. It draws upon a subset of the findings from an evaluation of Indigenous Youth Programs in New South Wales to examine the effectiveness of night patrols operating in nine communities across the state. While the patrols were universally endorsed by the communities they served, some services were functioning at a high level while others had experienced periods of dysfunction and inactivity. The factors that impede effective service provision for night patrols in some communities were compared with other communities where services were functioning well. The chapter argues that night patrols can build and harness collective efficacy providing more than mere community policing functions.

Night patrols:Mobilising collective efficacy in Indigenous communities

The U.S. Catholic Church and Criminal Justice

The aims of this chapter are to explore the factors which make particular neighbourhoods vulnerable to high levels of crime and victimisation, to describe a range of approaches to crime prevention, and to argue that this is a valid and perhaps essential field of activity for social work agencies concerned with crime and its effects. It will stress the difficulty and complexity of crime prevention, and how this reflects the difficulty and complexity of life on the estates where crime problems are most extreme. There is nothing to be gained from denial of these difficulties. If social workers are to use the opportunities crime prevention presents for creative and committed practice, their approach needs to be critical, empirically informed and realistic. In particular, they need to raise a quizzical eyebrow at every mention of the term ‘community’.

David Smith

Papers

Community and Crime