Urbanization, Sociohistorical Context, and Crime (From Criminological Controversies: A Methodological Primer, P 47-74, 1996, John Hagan, A R Gillis, and David Brownfield -- See NCJ- 163816)

• NCJ Number: 163819
• Author(s): A R Gillis
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 28 pages
• Sale Source: Westview Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The substantive focus of this chapter is the relationship between urbanization and crime, as well as the arguments developed by students of cities to explain the relationship.

Abstract

Most of the explanations were developed by 20th-century sociologists to account for the patterns they observed around them in Chicago and other U.S. cities. In view of the national and temporal constraints of this research, this chapter examines generally the urbanization of Europe and its relationship with the emergence of civilization. The chapter also presents a time- series analysis of urbanization and rates of crime in 19th- century France and concludes that, at least with respect to serious offenses, urban life is not by itself criminogenic. Synthesizing these findings with those produced by contemporary research suggests that social and demographic changes in Western nations in the last half of the 20th century may have provided an essential context for the emergence of a direct relationship between urbanization and rates of serious crime. 3 figures and 3 tables