NCJ Number
191996
Journal
Criminology Volume: 39 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2001 Pages: 837-864
Date Published
November 2001
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This study introduces public social control into multilevel victimization research by examining its impact on household and personal victimization risk for residents of 60 urban neighborhoods.
Abstract
The research used data from the Police Services Survey conducted in 1977 to examine an individual’s likelihood of criminal victimization. The survey contained information from 12,015 households located in 60 residential neighborhoods in the metropolitan areas of Rochester, NY, Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL, and St. Louis, MO. The dependent variables were household victimization by burglary and personal victimization by assault or mugging. Independent variables related to community ties to the local government and the police; variables related to neighborhood conditions; and routine activities related to exposure to offenders, target attractiveness, and capable guardianship. The study controlled for the variables of race/ethnicity, gender, and age. The analysis examined the ability of neighborhoods to obtain external resources necessary from the police and public agencies for the reduction of crime and victimization. Results revealed that living in neighborhoods with high levels of public social control reduced an individual’s likelihood of victimization, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Findings suggested that disadvantaged neighborhoods can be politically viable contexts given the important role that residents of these neighborhoods can have in obtaining public social control. Figures, tables, footnotes, appended table, and 51 references (Author abstract modified)