abstract: Psychological distress occurs at disproportionate rates among minority groups and individuals with lower socioeconomic status. This dissertation focuses on the relationship between living in a disadvantaged neighborhood and distress among Latinos, the formal and informal organizations that mediate the direct and indirect relationship between disadvantage and distress in this population, and the differences of social stress processes based on aspects of Latino social status, linguistic acculturation status, and the percentage of residents in the neighborhood that identify as Latino. This dissertation focuses its investigation on Latinos living in Chicago, specifically asking: In a metropolitan city, can the presence of formal and informal community organizations protect Latinos living in disadvantage neighborhoods from experiencing psychological distress? The findings demonstrate an indirect association between disadvantage and distress though objective disorganization and perception of disorganization. Both the density of community centers and block watch had an indirect protective effect, mediating the relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and distress, but did not decrease the indirect effect of disadvantage on distress through objective or perceptions of disorganization. The results of this dissertation suggest that changes to a neighborhood's environment may decrease population rates of distress in disadvantaged neighborhoods. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Social Work 2014

This dissertation adopts a quantitative approach to investigate the determinants of residents’ perceptions of neighbourhood crime, focusing specifically on a series of structural factors at the community level, in accordance with the social disorganisation model. Using different statistical models, including correlations, linear regression, multilevel models and spatial regression analyses, and several Spanish data sources, in particular the 2001 Population and Housing Census and a nationally representative survey conducted in 2006, the research confirms the relevance of its exogenous sources in explaining perceived neighbourhood crime. These include classical variables, such as neighbourhoods’ socioeconomic status, residential stability, ethnic diversity, family disruption and degree of urbanisation, but also other features related to the time, skills and resources deployed by residents in their residential areas such as commuting time to work, the number of working hours and the availability of a second home. For its part, other local conditions traditionally associated specifically with perceived neighbourhood crime, such as social incivilities and physical decay, act as mediators of other contextual effects, in particular of the number of retail shops and offices. The research also demonstrates the urban nature of the social disorganisation theory. That is, that the local conditions typically associated with social disorganisation, urban unease and the various social problems that can affect neighbourhoods, are better predictors of residents’ perceptions of crime in town and large cities than in rural areas, operationalized as municipalities of less than 5,000 inhabitants. Small municipalities seem particularly successful in controlling their younger residents for neither the proportion of adolescents and young adults, nor the number of children per family exert an important effect on residents’ perceptions of neighbourhood crime. Among these local conditions, special attention has been devoted to measures of diversity and immigration demonstrating that their effect on residents’ perceptions of neighbourhood crime, except for the positive impact of Asians, is not necessarily robust to different model specifications and statistical methods. This erratic immigrant effect is surprising given how consistent the belief in a crime-immigration nexus is among Spaniards. Precisely on this point, the dissertation has investigated why the belief in a crime-immigration nexus varies significantly between individuals and across communities. Three variables have been identified as determining factors: contextual parochialism, right-wing ideology and the media. In rural areas with high residential stability, a significant presence of elderly population and a low socioeconomic status, residents are more likely to unconsciously associate immigration and crime, even when individual attributes are adjusted for and, more importantly, even if few migrants live in the surroundings. Not surprisingly, right-wing residents are more likely to associate both phenomena yet, in contrast to many statements by scholars and pundits, the media in Spain seems to exert a moderator effect.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate a human being's basic responses to being touched by another human being in a nonreactive context and the effects of an illogical rationale on system disorganization. Two hypothesis were put forth: 1 - that persons in similar circumstances who are not touched, and 2 - that persons who are touched for a reason that makes sense will display less psychological and physiological variability than persons who are touched for a reason that makes less sense or, perhaps, is even considered "illofical." Forehead touch was chose. Positive and negative affect scales were utilized to measure psychological reactivity while skin temperature and heart rate were employed to measure psychological reactivity. These hypotheses were not supported in the present study since the expected group by phase interactions were not obtained. Instead, main effects for phase were found, especially for heart rate scores. Many concerns about the nature of the sample and the manipulation itself are discussed.

Though mental health issues are prevalent amongst college students, pre-college environment and experiences are largely overlooked as potential factors in scientific literature. The current study examined the association of neighborhood disorganization, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and mental health outcomes in a sample of college students. Utilizing the ecological model of human development and risk-resilience framework, I examined co-parenting quality as a plausible protective factor against the negative effects of adverse childhood experiences and neighborhood disorder. Self-report measures of ACEs, co-parenting quality, neighborhood disorder, anxiety, and depression were completed by a sample of college students (N = 259; mean age = 19.2 years). Simultaneous multiple regressions indicated that more ACEs predicted more depression and anxiety symptoms. However, neighborhood disorder did not predict anxiety or depression, and co-parenting quality did not moderate the association between neighborhood and mental health or ACEs and mental health outcomes. Results highlight future researchers should investigate pre-college environment to better understand college student mental health.

Social disorganization and social control are two seemingly competing theories attempting to explain crime and delinquency. In this study, social control and social disorganization are measured in a sample of college students via self-report surveys using questions derived from Hirschi's social control questionnaire and a previously employed social disorganization measure. Factor and reliability analyses were examined to validate each of these key constructs. Zero-order correlations, regression analyses, and path analysis were then used to test the key propositions of these theories. These tests provide full and qualified support for these theories. Implications for future research and criminal justice policy are discussed in light of these findings.

Social disorganization theory proposes that neighborhood characteristics, such as residential instability, racial and ethnic heterogeneity, concentrated disadvantage, and immigrant concentration contribute to an increase in crime rates. Informal social controls act as a mediator between these neighborhood characteristics and crime and delinquency. Informal social controls are regulated by members of a community and in a disorganized community these controls are not present, therefore, crime and delinquency flourish (Sampson, 2012). Researchers have focused on these measures of social disorganization and the ability to explain a variety of crimes, specifically public crimes. Recently, researchers have focused their attention to characteristics of socially disorganized areas and the ability to predict private crimes, such as domestic violence. This study contributes to the research on social disorganization theory and domestic violence by examining domestic offenses at three different units of analysis: Chicago census tracts, Chicago neighborhoods, and Illinois counties. Demographic variables from the 2005-2009 American Community Survey were utilized to measure social disorganization within Chicago census tracts, Chicago neighborhoods, and Illinois counties. Data on domestic offenses in Chicago were from the City of Chicago Data Portal and data on domestic offenses in Illinois counties were retrieved from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA). This study incorporated geographic information systems (GIS) mapping to examine the relationships between locations of domestic offenses and the measures of social disorganization in each unit of analysis. Results of this study indicate that different measures of social disorganization are significantly associated with domestic offenses in each unit of analysis.

The current study examines firearms’ impact on the relationship between illegal drug markets and homicide. At the county-level, Iowa and Virginia are analyzed using crime data from the National Incident Based Reporting System. More specifically, gun availability is tested as a mediator for county drug crime rates and homicide counts. Variable selection and prediction is based on routine activity and social disorganization theories. I argue that social disorganization allows the context for which criminal opportunity presents itself through routine activities. I posit gun availability mediates a positive relationship between illegal drug markets and homicide, with differences between urban and rural communities

Utilizing a Criminal Event Perspective, the analyses of this dissertation test a variety of relationships to the dependent variable: the Criminal Lethality Index. Data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System, the Census and American Community Survey, the American Trauma Society, and data derived from the Census’s mapping TIGER files are combined to create a database of 190 cities. This database is used to test road network connectivity (Gama Index), medical resources, criminal covariates and Social Disorganization variables in relation to a city’s Criminal Lethality Index. OLS regression demonstrates a significant and negative relationship between a city’s Gama Index and its Criminal Lethality Index. In addition, percent male, percent black, median income and percent of the population employed in diagnosing and treating medical professions were all consistently positively related to Criminal Lethality. The percent of males 16 to 24, percent of single parent households, and Concentrated Disadvantage Index were all consistently and negatively related to Criminal Lethality. Given these surprising results, additional diagnostic regressions are run using more traditional dependent variables such as the number of murders in a city and the proportion of aggravated assaults with major injuries per 100,000 population. These reveal the idiosyncratic nature of utilizing the Criminal Lethality Index. This dependent variable has proven useful in some circumstances and counterintuitive in others. The source of the seemingly unintuitive results is the fact that certain factors only reduce murders but many factors impact both murder and aggravated assaults, thereby creating difficultly when trying to predict patterns in Criminal Lethality

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