Inequality, Opportunity, and Crime Rates in Central Cities

• NCJ Number: 89549
• Journal: Criminology Volume: 21 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1983) Pages: 178-194
• Author(s): L Carroll; P I Jackson
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 17 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Revision of a paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Sociological Association in August 1981

Annotation

In a recent paper, Cohen and Felson argue that changes in our routine activities since World War II have contributed to the increase in predatory crime by creating additional opportunities for it.

Abstract

In particular, they found that a measure of the dispersal of activities away from the home -- the household activity ratio -- has had a significant effect on crime rate trends since 1947. The aim of the present research is twofold: (1) to determine if this relationship occurs across space as well as over time, and (2) to see if economic inequality may be an intervening variable between the household activity ratio and the crime rate. The sample consists of 93 nonsouthern cities of over 50,000 population in 1960. Data are drawn from the 1970 Census and the Uniform Crime Reports. Using path analysis, it is determined that the effects of the household activity ratio on rates of predatory crime are entirely indirect, and are transmitted by income inequality. (Publisher abstract)