Community Safety and Criminal Activity in Black Suburbs

Dados Bibliográficos

ID18949741
AutoresWoodrow W Nichols (North Carolina Central University, autor correspondente)
Ano1979
Volume9
Fascículo3
Páginas311-333
Data de publicação1979-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Black Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0021-9347 • E-ISSN: 1552-4566
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/002193477900900304
OpenAlexW2165940456
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas7

This paper presents an attempt to assess community safety and criminal activity in black suburban agglomerations found in U.S. metropolitan areas. Several observations regarding the volume and location of crime influenced the present frame-work. They are: (1) Crime in the United States is still primarily a phenomenon of large cities, even though crime rates in suburbs are increasing at a much higher rate. (2) Crime is committed disproportionately by individuals at the lower end of the occupational scale-much of which stems from inner-city ghetto slums where many blacks live. (3) The differences in crime rates from one group to another are not racial, but a result of social pressures. (4) While the emphasis has been on high crime rates within black central-city ghettos, little research has focused on those indi-viduals desiring to live in crime-free environments.’ QUESTIONS A number of questions have been asked regarding the first three observations. Shaw and McKay (1942), in their classic study, alluded to these patterns by examining juvenile delin-quency and adult crime among a vast number of neighbor-at PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIV on May 11, 2016jbs.sagepub.comDownloaded from 312 hoods in many large American cities. Social disorganization which suggests the absence of a stable society and legalistically based behavior codes and established norms and values, was the general explanation offered to explain the spatial varia-tion in crime rates. Based on the consistent observations of correlation between crime, delinquency, and a large number of other such variables as mobility, substandard housing, and particular ethnic groups, social disorganization was viewed as the underlying factor. Other theories have been advanced; for example, anomie and deviant subculture. However, each of these is closely aligned to the main principles of social disorganization.2 HYPOTHESES Even though many researchers, some of whom have been

Criminology · Sociology · Psychology · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies