Research on reporting crime to the police on the individual- and incident- levels has received much attention over the years. However, many studies examining neighborhood-level effects on reporting are limited in scope. The current study examines the relationship between neighborhood characteristics central to social disorganization theory and police notification. Data for this study were derived from Warner’s (2004) study entitled “Informal Social Control of Crime in High Drug Use Neighborhoods in Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky, 2000.” The analysis uses OLS regression models to isolate how different neighborhood characteristics impact reporting. Findings indicate that disadvantage and mobility have a positive effect on reporting but are mediated by social cohesion. Social cohesion has a negative effect on reporting while confidence in police had no significant effects. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Research on reporting crime to the police on the individual- and incident- levels has received much attention over the years. However, many studies examining neighborhood-level effects on reporting are limited in scope. The current study examines the relationship between neighborhood characteristics central to social disorganization theory and police notification. Data for this study were derived from Warner’s (2004) study entitled “Informal Social Control of Crime in High Drug Use Neighborhoods in Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky, 2000.” The analysis uses OLS regression models to isolate how different neighborhood characteristics impact reporting. Findings indicate that disadvantage and mobility have a positive effect on reporting but are mediated by social cohesion. Social cohesion has a negative effect on reporting while confidence in police had no significant effects. Suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Social control is an important element to consider when examining crime and delinquency within a neighborhood. To date, the majority of research pertaining to social control has focused on informal social control at the private level. Recent research has suggested, however, that informal social control at the parochial level is gaining significance due to changes within society. Using individuals' perceptions measured through survey data in Peoria, Illinois, this study seeks to determine if neighborhood structural and social characteristics, posited by social disorganization theory, influence parochial informal social control actions the same way they influence private informal social control actions. Results show that neighborhood structural characteristics influence citizen perceptions of parochial informal social control. Individuals' living in disadvantaged and racially/ethnically diverse neighborhoods were more likely to perceive their neighbors to participate in parochial informal social control actions, e.g. calling the police, than individuals' who live in more advantaged neighborhoods. This suggests that social disorganization theory does not explain parochial informal social control the same way that it has been shown to explain private informal social control. Future studies should rely upon a variety of theoretical perspectives to better test the determinants of parochial informal social control, as well as examine other factors (such as police-citizen relations) that may influence individuals' perceptions of their neighbors participation in parochial informal social control.

The primary focus of this study is to investigate the effects of social control mechanisms on public order crimes in Turkey. Supporting efforts of parochial control is a rising trend in crime control activities. Statements regarding the relationship between social disorganization variables, parochial control variables, and spatial distribution of crime have long been studied by researchers. Using the same assumptions in this study, I test their applicability to public order crimes in Turkey. The poverty and residential mobility variables had significant positive effect on public order crimes holding other structural and parochial variables constant. The number of public order crimes seems to be higher in provinces where there are more disrupted families. The number of public order crimes seems to be lower in provinces where there are more religious institutions. Overall, the results reveal that social structural variables and parochial control factors affect the institutional bases of provinces and partly affect the occurrence of public order crimes. Based on the study findings, several policy implications and recommendations for future research are suggested.

The crime of shoplifting has received limited scholarly attention despite millions of shoplifting arrests that occur every year. Our understanding of shoplifting is limited because of this. This study assesses whether offenders arrested for shoplifting that reside in socially disorganized neighborhoods differ from their counterparts from less socially disorganized neighborhoods. Using arrest data from the Meridian Police Department and secondary data from the 2018 American Community Survey, analyses revealed that arrestees from neighborhoods with high levels of poverty were more likely to shoplift from dollar stores, liquor stores, and convenience stores. Demographic findings revealed few gender differences in shoplifting among the arrestees. Arrestees most frequently shoplifted at Walmart and often pilfered non-necessity items. Black arrestees were more likely to shoplift at dollar stores, liquor stores, and convenience stores and less likely to receive a guilty adjudication. White and male arrestees were more likely to have prior offenses.

In this paper, I argue for a paradigm shift against general social groupings of organized criminal groups operating throughout the United States. Using Social Constructionism to drive a literature review conducted by way of Discourse Analysis, I spotlight ways in which broad characterizations of "organized crime" led to a mis-handling of gang issues today. Through relying on federally-originating definitions and characterizations, law enforcement and welfare agencies are unequipped for understanding the origins of and motives behind modern gangs and their agendas. The second half of this paper is a case study highlighting the different ways in which gangs may develop and operate despite, in the case of Chicago's Black Gangster Disciples Nation and its splinters, a shared history. If we are to reduce the hold these groups have over urban societies, we must first seek to understand each group individually, pulling out the root issues that drive their actions and how they identify as a form of modern organized crime, that is, "crime that is organized." / Master of Arts / In this paper, I argue for a reduced reliance on broad, all-encompassing definitions and groupings of organized crime / gangs. By creating these broad categories, government and law enforcement entities lack detailed understanding of the specific groups they deal with on a daily basis. Instead, I argue that all such criminal groups from mafia-style organizations to common street gangs be defined as organized crime, being “crime that is organized.” From this point, each group should be studied in depth as an individual group, with individual motives and roots, such that entities may determine specific causes and/or motivations driving how the group operations and what agenda they work to carry out. The second half of this work provides a case study of a Chicagobased gang and splinter groups that resulted from the gang’s demise. Had generalizations been drawn when studying the Black Gangster Disciples Nation and its splinters, the incredible differences in each splinter would have been missed and entities would further lack that which is necessary to isolate and combat the groups for what they are: unique organizations that pursue their own agendas as three very different groups despite identical histories.

Each year 700,000 to 800,000 parolees are released prison and are returned to the community (Durose, Cooper, & Snyder 2014; Porter, 2011; West, Sabol, Greenman, 2010), of whom approximately two-thirds will be reincarcerated within the three years following their releases (Durose et al., 2014). Although, scholars have pointed to parolees’ needs of services and resources (Hipp, Petersilia, & Turner, 2010), the majority of the literature has been limited to the examination of individual-level predictors of parolee outcomes. The current study aims to extend the parolee literature by identifying whether or not neighborhood disadvantage, mobility, and local institutions (i.e., churches, service providers) have an effect on parolee outcomes. To examine these effects, data on 3,077 parolees living within 209 Census block groups across Philadelphia, Pennsylvania were obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC) and the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole (PBPP). Furthermore, parolee outcome data were disaggregated by the behavior resulting in reincarceration [i.e., the commission of a new crime (CPV), technical parole violation (TPV)], as well as the length of time between release from prison and reincarceration. A series of multilevel models (HLM) were conducted to examine the effects of neighborhood-level and individual-level predictors of parolee reincarceration, as well as how these effects differed for CPVs versus TPVs, and varied across time. Based on results from the analyses, parolee outcomes were to some extent effected by neighborhood context and institutions (i.e., Evangelical Protestant churches, service providers). Additionally, neighborhood-level and individual-level effects varied based on the reason for reincarceration, and the amount of time that passed between release from prison and reincarceration. Lastly, although DOC referred service providers did not have a direct effect on parolee reincarceration, there were significant interaction effects with disadvantage, such that the effects of DOC service providers decreased the odds of reincarceration in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. The conditional effects of DOC service providers by level of neighborhood disadvantage highlights the need for service providers within such communities. Further investigation of neighborhood context, and the placement of much needed resources in communities where parolees reside, may be advantageous in increasing success amongst parolees.

Previous research suggests that competition in the low-skilled labor market associated with Latino immigration is related to crime for rural whites and urban blacks. Furthermore, studies suggest that communities can selectively enforce norms regarding crimes. This study tested whether low-skill job competition associated with Latino immigration is correlated with higher rates of drug use than drug dealing, and higher rates of instrumental crimes than expressive crimes. Furthermore, this study tested whether urban blacks were more affected than urban whites, and rural whites more than rural blacks. The results did not support the original hypotheses, except that urban blacks were more affected than urban whites. This suggests support for Anderson’s Code of the Street. However, differing crime increases between rural and urban areas suggests that Anderson’s theory may not work everywhere. Lastly, the control variables suggest that the race-crime relationship may be more complex when other factors are controlled for.

Lanier and Huff-Corzine's (2006) article "American Indian Homicide: A County-Level Analysis Utilizing Social Disorganization Theory" has been referred to as a highly influential piece of literature on American Indian homicide. The study looked at American Indian homicide victimization incidents by county between 1986 and 1992 in the continental United States using the framework of social disorganization theory. Despite the violent crime drop in the 1990s, little research exists that examines current dynamics of American Indian homicide. This study provides an updated replication of Lanier and Huff-Corzine (2006) by examining the impact of social disorganization on American Indian homicide victimization between 2006 and 2012. Results differ from Lanier and Huff-Corzine (2006). Reasons for the different outcomes are explored and implications for future research are discussed.

The following study is an exploratory analysis of intimate partner kidnapping. The current study will give a descriptive picture of the victim, offender, and incident characteristics of a form of intimate partner violence that has never been studied before, intimate partner kidnapping, as well as a form of physical violence often seen in the literature, intimate partner assaults. The study will use a combination of the National Incident Based Report System (FBI, 2009), and the American Community Survey (Census, 2012) to identify these characteristics and also to identify any potential relationships between structural-level correlates and rates of intimate partner violence. The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of multiple forms of intimate partner violence using police data, as well as, understand their relationships to structural-level correlates of counties. The current study uses the National Incident-Based Reporting (FBI, 2009) system from the year 2009 in order to identify both types of intimate partner violence. It is rare that police data is used to study intimate partner violence, and the current study expands our knowledge of this violence by using a different type of data to study this area. Additionally, the American Community Survey (Census, 2012) estimates between 2005-2009 are utilized to measure the structural-level variables, including concentrated disadvantage, racial heterogeneity, immigrant concentration, and residential stability. Overall, this study finds that intimate partner kidnapping is a different form of violence than intimate partner assaults. Only one structural level variable, residential stability is significantly associated with intimate partner kidnapping, whereas, 3 of the 4 structural level iv variables are significantly related to intimate partner assaults and most in the direction expected. The conclusions suggest that intimate partner kidnapping may be a part of “coercive controlling violence” which involves severe amounts of control, isolation, and intimidation, and may not have the same relationships to structural-level correlates as other types of intimate partner violence, such as physical assaults.