Journal ArticleDOI
Structural sources of variation in race-age-specific rates of offending across major u.s. cities*
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TLDR
This article examined the economic determinants of age, race, and crime-specific offending rates for a sample of the nation's largest cities and found that income inequality has a direct positive effect on black offending rates, whereas black poverty has no effect.Abstract:
Recently, much attention has been focused on the structural determinants of variations in crime rates across U.S. cities. Virtually all research in this area has utilized aggregate reported offense rates as the dependent variable. While it provides a good indicator of the total volume of crime, the aggregate crime rate suffers two major disadvantages-it obscures individual- and aggregate-level effects, and it does not allow testing of criminological theory which specifies differential effects of economic variables (for example, poverty, inequality) on offending rates for various population subgroups (for example, black adults, white adults). The present study addresses these issues by examining the economic determinants of age, race, and crime-specific offending rates for a sample of the nation's largest cities. The overall results suggest that income inequality has a direct positive effect on black offending rates for serious crime, whereas black poverty has no effect. In contrast, white poverty has positive effects on white violence, while inequality significantly increases white robbery and burglary. The implications of findings for recent theoretical developments of conflict and relative deprivation theory are assessed.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Poverty, Income Inequality, and Violent Crime: A Meta-Analysis of Recent Aggregate Data Studies:
Ching-Chi Hsieh,M. D. Pugh +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors applied the procedures of meta-analysis to 34 aggregate data studies reporting on violent crime, poverty, and income inequality, finding that nearly 80 percent of the positive coefficients were of at least moderate strength.
Journal ArticleDOI
A General Strain Theory of Community Differences in Crime Rates
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors draw on Agnew's general strain theory to explain community differences in crime rates, including the failure to achieve positively valued goals and the loss of positive stimuli/presentation of negative stimuli.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Subcultural Theory of Urbanism: A Twentieth-Year Assessment
TL;DR: In the last 20 years, some urban sociologists have placed Fischer's 1975 article, "Subcultural Theory of Urbanism," on equal footing with Wirth's 1938 classic, "Urbanism as a Way of Life," as an explanation of urban-rural differences as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI
Crime in Cities: The Effects of Formal and Informal Social Control
TL;DR: The authors examined the structural determinants of robbery and homicide offending in 171 American cities with a population greater than 100,000 in 1980 and found that local official sanctions appear to have significant deterrent effects on robbery offending.
Journal ArticleDOI
Structural position and violence: developing a cultural explanation*
TL;DR: This article developed a cultural model of disputatiousness and aggressiveness and found that individuals who occupy positions featuring high rates of violence are more likely than their counterparts to be offended by a negative outcome, to protest the injury, and to use force when the protest fails.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Social structure and Anomie.
TL;DR: Merton, Robert as discussed by the authors, 1968. "Social Structure and Anomie", in Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press: 185-214. Translation:
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Social Structure and Anomie
TL;DR: Merton, Robert as mentioned in this paper, 1968. "Social Structure and Anomie", in Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press: 185-214. Translation:
Journal ArticleDOI
The Cost of Inequality: Metropolitan Structure and Violent Crime
Judith R. Blau,Peter M. Blau +1 more
TL;DR: This paper found that variations in rates of urban criminal violence largely result from differences in racial inequality in socioeconomic conditions and that if there is a culture of violence, its roots are pronounced economic inequalities, especially if associated with ascribed position.
Journal ArticleDOI
Police control of juveniles.
Donald Black,Albert J. Reiss +1 more
TL;DR: Achievement motivation and religious background, and individual comparisons by ranking methods.
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The Cost of Inequality: Metropolitan Structure and Violent Crime
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