NCJ Number
84517
Date Published
1981
Length
186 pages
Annotation
This book unifies the diverse literature on environmental factors in relation to crime and provides an assessment of environmental explanations of crime and their utility.
Abstract
Disparities in the distribution of crime and criminals are examined in official statistics, and offenses are discussed by types of crime and offenders according to their personal characteristics. The contribution of ecological dimensions to an understanding of disparities in crime rates is critically evaluated, with attention to opportunity theories, social disorganization theories, and subculture theories. Criticisms of the ecological method and a typology of ecological areas are also discussed. The chapter on crime and the community examines the production of official crime rates, patterns of victimization, perceptions of crime, fears of crime, attitudes to crime and support for the law, and patterns of community response to crime. Disparities in the criminal justice system's response to crime across jurisdictions are analyzed, including a case study in sentencing disparity. The interaction of community values and patterns in the use of criminal justice discretion is discussed as well. The disparate material on offenses, offenders, and victims is integrated in a discussion of the various roles played by environmental factors in crime. These include scale and distance effects expressing the constraints on persons' behavior, whether offenders or victims; the environment as a source of opportunities which predispose some persons to offend or which precipitate particular events; and the environment as an element in the labelling process whereby areas acquire reputations which circumscribe responses to crime. Ideology, displacement, and coping with crime are discussed as they relate to policy evaluation. A bibliography of about 240 listings is provided. (Author summary modified)