Incivilities In Neighborhood

So far, both theories are able to explain the crime inequality observed insides neighbourhoods; however, when it comes to explaining the difference in crime rates between neighbourhoods with similarly low levels of poverty, social disorganization theory is not able to fully explain why such difference may occur, as it places a greater focus on the internal dynamics of the neighbourhoods than on the external contingencies (Peterson & Krivo, 2010, p. 92). Based on Table 4.5 of Divergent Social Worlds: Neighborhood Crime and the Racial-Spatial DivideI, minority low-poverty areas have roughly two and a half times more violence than their white counterparts (Peterson & Krivo, 2010, p. 88). Social disorganization theory insists that residential instability (percent of those who owns and percent of those who rent) , population heterogeneity (internal differences, including ethno-racial differences), poverty (percent of those who live in poverty), income, deteriorating neighbourhood, and population loss (percent of those who leave due to deterioration) are mechanisms that leads to the absence of informal social control and increases social disorganization, causing the loss of control over youths who then hang out at spontaneous playgrounds and form gangs with delinquent traditions that get passed down through cultural transmission. If such was the case, then one would expect neighbourhoods with similar and comparable local conditions to have similar average rates of crimes. However,

There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz, tells a story about the family of LaJoe and Paul Rivers. The book focuses on Lafayette and Pharaoh, two of the younger children in the family, and their interactions with each other, the neighborhood, their family, their friends, and the police. Following the family over three years shows the importance of neighborhood factors when it comes to crime. According to Sampson and Groves (1989), social disorganization refers to “the inability of a community structure to realize the common values of its residents and maintain effective social controls”. Many aspects in the book exemplify how neighborhood factors, social controls, and community factors have impacts on crime. The book exemplifies how neighborhood disadvantage can lead to informal social controls, which in turn produces crime. Due to these factors, social disorganization is the best theory to explain the crime that occurs in There are No Children Here.

Brunson and Miller’s article about gender, race, and policing is focusing mainly on African Americans in poor urban communities and what roles come into place when it comes to law enforcement. Solely focusing on race, Brunson and Miller bring a point that states use more physical violence on minority groups than whites, many Law Enforcer are stereotypical when it comes to certain races. Brunson and Miller claims that it is no different in any other neighborhood and that there are always drug dealers in the neighborhood, and feels that it’s the norm. In the article Brunson and Miller display a chart that shows the percentage of African Americans, poverty level, unemployment levels, female headed families in Youth neighborhoods, St. Louis City

The community I have chosen for this paper is The South ward of Newark, New Jersey where the hospital which I work is located. Newark is an urban community consists of primarily of African American and Hispanic population. The South Ward of Newark and contains 17 public schools, five daycare centers, three branch libraries, one police precinct, and three fire houses (City of Newark New Jersey, 2013). The city’s property and violet crime levels tend to be higher than New Jersey’s average level (Newark, NJ Profile, 2013). Observation of this community through a window

However, as Billy Lamar Brooks Sr. explained in “The Case for Reparations,” if “you got a nice house, you live a nice neighborhood, then you are less prone to violence, because your space is not deprived.” But if “you grow up in a place like this, housing sucks. When they tore down the projects here, they left the high-rises and came to the neighborhood with that gang mentality. You don’t have nothing, so you going to take something, even if it’s not real. You don’t have no street, but in your mind it’s yours” (Coates). By Brooks’ standards, people turn to gang violence because they have no space and want something that defines them as a person. Once again, the negative assumptions associated with Blacks today, such as that all Blacks are criminals, derive from the segregation in the past. While some African Americans are criminals, they often are such because they were forced to live in segregated communities with fewer opportunities. To reduce crime, the government must open more programs that provide impoverished communities with “something that defines

African Americans have been associated with crime for many years, and because of that, the stigma follows them everywhere. There are plenty of neighborhoods with a lot of African Americans that have high crime rates, but these neighborhoods also have “pronounced levels of socioeconomic disadvantages”(Laurence 1). It is argued that African American neighborhoods have the “highest average levels of disadvantaged social conditions owing to the role of race in structuring opportunity and community access"(Krivo and Peterson qtd. in Laurence). Some researchers focus on this point, while others find that although these neighborhoods are more disadvantaged, there may be other reasons for high crime rate in the

Living in communities that are run down, neglected and forgotten takes a toll on all members of the community. This is especially true when residents witness new properties being erected around the city as their own neighborhoods are deemed “ghettos” and not receiving the investment necessary for improvements. Many of the low income housing that is available to city residents aren’t the most desirable properties as they may have structural deficiencies, lead paint, rats and roaches running amuck. Many older properties also do not have adequately functioning heat or hot water availability. The housing projects also do not have air conditioning. On hot days, having no cool break in addition to all the other negative social factors, this can be a deadly combination that may perpetuate frustrations and ultimately lead to violence.

He interviewed 20 boys per area and for every 80 percent, he also interviewed a parent or primary caretaker. Harding explains his focus on boys because of their greater involvement and exposure to street violence and to allow a gender match between subject and interviewer. To understand the boys' neighborhoods, the interviews investigated how the subjects conceptualize their neighborhoods as not only geographic but as social spaces. The differentiation of the three neighborhoods is a key aspect of his study's design. Asking similar questions and discussing the same topics with the individuals in different neighborhoods revealed significant differences in the daily lives of adolescent boys across the neighborhoods. It was only through these comparisons that Harding’s findings about the differences in experiences of violence, threats of victimization, and the role of older males in social settings was discovered. According to Harding (2009), among the adolescent boys of Franklin and Roxbury Crossing, neighborhood violence is simultaneously structured by neighborhood identities. Nearly all of the subjects in these poor, violent areas use neighborhoods as categories to distinguish insiders from outsiders. “In Franklin and Roxbury Crossing, 32 of 40 boys (80 percent) reported that more than half of their friends live in their immediate neighborhoods, and 22 of the boys (55 percent) had no friends from outside their neighborhoods. Only three of 40 boys reported no neighborhood friends. In Lower Mills, 13 of 20 boys (65 percent) reported that more than half of their friends live in their neighborhoods, and seven of the boys (35 percent) had no friends outside the neighborhood. Four of 20 Lower Mills boys reported no neighborhood friends” (Harding, 2009, Page

“people around here are willing to help their neighbors, this a close knit neighborhood, people in this neighborhood can be trusted, people in the neighborhood generally don’t get along with each other and people in this neighborhood don’t share the same values” (Sampson et al., 1997, 920).

Crime data came from local police agencies for the FBI's Part I crimes (i.e., homicide, rape, aggravated assaulted assaults, robbery, burglary, larceny, auto theft, and arson) for February through July 1998. Additional data came from computerized crime mapping. Results in both cities revealed that black female residents of public housing were at a much higher risk of aggravated assault than were black and white women who lived elsewhere in the same jurisdiction. However, the geographic pattern for aggravated assaults for black female public housing residents differed markedly in the two cities. The analysis used the perspective of situational crime prevention to attribute the differences in victimization patterns to the different architectural design and geographic dispersion of the respective cities’ public housing developments. (Holzman, Hyatt, & Dempster, 2001)

The fear of crime on a college campus is highlighted based upon sex differences. According to Pritchard, Jordan, and Wilcox (2015), college women, fear of stranger sexual assault may be influential to both cognitive perceptions of safety and emotional fear of crime. When compared to men, higher levels of fear among women are best predicted by the fear of being sexually assaulted. However, men have been found to express higher levels of fear of criminal assault when they perceive the risk of victimization to be more likely. Wongtongkam, Ward, Day, and Winefield, (2015) suggested that the belief that one must be violent to be masculine is to blame for the fighting between students of different vocational schools. Those who felt challenged often

The focus of this theory is on the association between social control, the neighborhood structure, and crime (Kubrin & Weitzer, 2003). Social disorganization is the incapability of the community to solve significant problems and achieve common goals. The theory posits that residential mobility, poverty, ethnic heterogeneity, and weak social networks decrease the ability of the neighborhood to manage the behavior of people and hence the likelihood of crime is increased (Kubrin & Weitzer, 2003). Therefore, the social and physical environments of neighborhoods can increase the chances robbery. Factors such as unemployment, vandalized buildings, and poverty can thus be used to explain the occurrence of robbery. When the robbery rates have increased in a neighborhood, an examination of the social and physical environment can yield answers to robbery patterns.

relevant to this research and the researchers will be “able to construe the patterns, and offer support that will also explicate how the social structure can affect/impact social disorganization and inequality in these neighborhoods very differently, in addition to how other structure contexts might help to lead to violent outcomes” (Cancino, Martinez Jr., & Stowell, 2009, para. 10-11).

In the 1920s, members of the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago tried to identify environmental factors associated with crime. Specifically, they attempted to uncover the relationship between a neighborhood’s crime rate and the characteristics of the neighborhood.

Other indicators of neighborhood decline and disorder include vandalism, abandoned buildings, graffiti, and vacant lots. Of all of the indicators assessed in a study done by Perkins, Meeks, and Taylor in 1992, litter was found to have the strongest correlation with perceptions of neighborhood decline and disorder (as in Florida Litter Study, 1998). A study by Skogan in 1990, indicates that the effects of this perception of neighborhood decline range from a decrease in property values to an increase in crime, or at least an increase in criminals’ perception that crime will be tolerated (as in Florida Litter Study, 1998). This study goes on to explain that as people’s perceptions of neighborhood decline increase, it is more likely that crime will occur and that criminals will be drawn to the area because it appears more likely that criminal behavior will be tolerated or ignored. A study by DeFrances and Titus in 1994 found a statistically significant relationship between neighborhood disorder and burglary outcome indicating that burglaries are more likely to be completed in neighborhoods with higher levels of disorder (as in Florida Litter Study, 1998). The study by Skogan indicates that the effect of this perception of neighborhood decline and increase in crime can also negatively impact property values and investment interest (as in Florida Litter Study, 1998).