The systemic model posits that informal social control directly reduces crime victimization and social networks indirectly reduce crime victimization through informal social control. While empirical testing of the systemic model advanced the theory, important analytical issues remain. First, social networks are inconsistently conceptualized and measured. Second, the conceptual relationship between social networks and informal social control remains unclear. This study addresses these issues by testing an alternative to the systemic model, including new constructs and hypotheses. The goal is to develop better indicators for the model and refine the theory, rethinking and deepening the existing theory about neighborhood effects on crime victimization. The data come from the 2002-2003 Seattle Neighborhoods and Crime Survey (N=2,200). Structural equation modeling (SEM), a multivariate statistical technique, was used to analyze these data. The SEM included five latent constructs (neighboring, neighborhood and non-neighborhood social networks, collective efficacy, and crime victimization) and six social structural variables (racially homogeneous neighborhood, resident tenure, household income, family disruption, male, and non-white ethnicity). One of my 9 hypotheses was supported; the remaining hypotheses were partly supported. The results support my argument that the systemic model is too simplistic, but the relationships among the variables are not exactly as I hypothesized. The results provide insight into the complexities of the systemic model and areas for future research.

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of social structure and community organization factors on campus crime on California community college campuses. The study utilized social disorganization theory to examine those relationships by aggregating data from the 113 campuses that are required to submit data on an annual basis to state and federal agencies. Crime data from the 2011 Clery report was separated into personal crimes and property crimes as reported by the California community college campuses. Correlation analysis was used for the non-categorical social structure and community organization factors. Those factors which demonstrated a statistical relationship with personal or property crimes were then regressed to further analyze the data. The relationships of categorical social structure and community organization factors with personal and property crimes were studied using analysis of variance. The results demonstrated that most of the social structure and community organization variables did not have a statistically significant relationship with personal or property crimes. However, the percentage of students receiving general financial aid in the form of Pell Grants demonstrated a strong relationship with an increase in both personal and property crimes. Additionally, an increase in the ratio of part-time to full-time faculty members demonstrated an increase in property crime on campus. The findings indicate that students on campuses with a high percentage of Pell Grant recipients are likely to be impacted by crime in some manner and that campuses with a large percentage of Pell Grant recipients need to consider additional supports and interventions to protect students from crime on campus. The findings also demonstrate that hiring a large percentage of part-time instructors may be counterproductive to preventing campus crime.

Although studies examining juvenile recidivism have focused primarily on violent recidivism, the factors that predict recidivism likely differ by offense type. To examine general, property, and violent recidivism, this study combined individual-level data (i.e., offender and case characteristics) from the Mississippi Youth Court Information Data System (MYCIDS) for the years 2009-2011 and contextual-level data (i.e., county characteristics) from the 2010 U.S. Census and the 2010 Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). Results showed that offender characteristics predicted only general and property recidivism, but case characteristics mattered for all three types (i.e., general, violent, and property recidivism). Contextual characteristics (i.e., the percentage of the population that is male aged 15 to 24) also mattered, but only for property recidivism. These findings have implications for policies and programs related to the treatment of juvenile offenders.

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Thesis "Corruption in the Czech Customs Administration" is focused on the issue of corruption and the causes of corrupt behaviour of Czech customs officials. The primary task of this work was to determine whether it is the disorganization of the armed force or the individual deviance which influences the level of corruption in the Czech Customs Administration more. The secondary task was to elicit the level of corruption as it is perceived by the customs officials themselves and on the basis of the acquired information to suggest some anti-corruption measures. The theory of social disorganization and the theory of social deviancy were used as the basis for this work. The data required for the decision whether it is the disorganization of the armed force or the individual deviance which influences the level of corruption in the Czech Customs Administration more and the data for the findings of the corruption level as it is perceived by the customs officials was collected from a quantitative research. This research was conducted in the form of a questionnaire that was distributed among Czech customs officials The research revealed that the main factor which increases the level of corruption in the Czech Customs Administration is the social disorganization of the armed force. The other finding from...