Examining Postdisaster Behavior Through a Criminological Lens

A Look at Property Crime

Bibliographic Data

ID3758705
AuthorsKelly Frailing (0000-0001-9917-9482, Loyola University New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA, corresponding author), Dee Wood Harper (Loyola University New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA)
Year2020
Volume64
Issue8
Pages1179-1195
Publication date2020-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Behavioral Scientist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-7642 • E-ISSN: 1552-3381
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0002764220938110
OpenAlexW3039040782
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited38

Disaster sociology has a rich and undeniably valuable history. Among other things, it has revealed much about the behavior of disaster survivors. In recent years, criminologists have turned their attention and the discipline's theories, methods, and data sources to understanding behavior in the wake of disasters and have come to a number of additional and sometimes different conclusions than did sociologists. In this article, we examine property crime in the wake of some recent and high-profile disasters. We find short-term increases in burglary after a number of disasters, ostensibly challenging some long-held notions in disaster sociology. We contend that the use of criminological methods including secondary analysis of extant data to understand behavior after disasters provides a more nuanced and accurate picture of postdisaster behavior and conclude with a call for inclusion of these theories, methods, and data sources in disaster studies more widely

Criminology · Disaster research · Epistemology · Extant taxon · Geography · Inclusion (mineral) · Lens (geology) · Property (philosophy) · Property crime · Social science · Sociology · Through-the-lens metering · Violent crime · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Engineering · Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

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