Crime Rate and Social Integration The Impact of Metropolitan Mobility

Abstract

This article examines the effect of resb!mtbl mobility on the c r i m rates of the 65 largest Standard Metropolitan StatisticalAreas in the country. Mobility variables and population size are found to be better predietors of s m crimes than measures traditionally w e d to measure the opportunity structure. A contextual interpretation of the mobilitylcrime rate relationship is posited High rata of mobility are believed to negatively affect social integration, which decreases the effectiveness of community informal control mechanisms. Criminal Sheriffs OfficeSociologists have sought explanations for crime primarily in societal conditions. These explanations may be grouped into two types. Those explanations receiving the most attention in recent years focus on marginal societal situations and attributes of potential offenders that deny access to or impede the use of approved means. This position forms the basic premises of anomie theory as formulated by Merton (1968), of the various Marxian formulations, particularly conflict theory, and, less directly, of critical theory. The second type of explanation focuseson the degree of social integration. Particular attention is paid to the individual's integration into a meaningful network of social relations and the extent to which values and behavior of that network correspond to those of society. This focus can be traced to many of the founders of sociology, particularly Durkheim, and is linked to conceptions of social disorgani-AUTHORS NOTE: The research for this project was partially supported NICHD Grant RO1 HDo6911-01. W e would like to thank Jeff Reynuldp, Mayer Z d d , Michael Hughes, Susan Kinne, and a m -revieUrers for their commnents

Violent Crime, Residential Instability and Mobility: Does the Relationship Differ in Minority Neighborhoods?

“…Studies using length of residency have found a significant negative relationship between average length of residence and crime (Bellair 1997;Hipp 2007a). Similarly, Crutchfield et al (1982) found a significant positive relationship between the rate of new residents moving in and violent crime, particularly homicide, in large U.S. metropolitan areas.…”

Spatial Is Special: A Socio-Geographic Profile of Offenders in the City of Tswane, South Africa

“…Past international research summarised by Oh (2005) highlight poverty (Parker, 1989;Lee, 2000), unemployment (Grant and Martinez, 1997;Miethe et al, 1991), income inequality (Blau and Blau, 1982;Shihadeh and Ousey, 1996), family disruption (Sampson and Groves, 1989;Shihadeh and Steffensmeier, 1994), and population mobility as the key ecological determinants of urban crime rates (Crutchfield et al, 1982;Sampson and Groves, 1989;Shaw and McKay, 1942). Locally, Breetzke and Horn (2006) have shown that offender rates are associated with the spatial incidence of four broad factors -low social status and income, a large and young family, unskilled workers and high residential mobility.…”

Age Structure and Neighborhood Homicide: Testing and Extending the Differential Institutional Engagement Hypothesis

“…Even when focusing on relatively small spatial units, inconsistencies in the age structure-crime relationship are evident. In their analysis of metropolitan statistical areas, Crutchfield, Geerken, and Gove (1982) revealed that the proportion of the population that is young male is negatively associated with crime rates, but using the same unit of analysis, DeFronzo (1983) found no age effect on various crimes, including homicide. Whereas these researchers examined the percentage of young male population, other researchers have observed null age structure effects on homicide when including the percentage of young adult (male and female) population (e.g., Messner, 1983).…”