From the Margins to the Mainstream? Disaster Research at the Crossroads

Tierney, Kathleen J.

doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.33.040406.131743

Cited by 370 publications

(264 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…As suggested by Tierney (2007), the relationship between disasters and disorder was much more nuanced than it first appeared. Considerations of crime across an urban area, for example, might actually have missed variation across neighborhoods and types of crime.…”

Section: Disasters and Crime: Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The precise social impact of disasters remained somewhat unclear; some research suggested disasters have a destructive effect on the social fabric thereby causing "anomic" conditions such as looting (see Drabek, 2007;Quarantelli & Dynes, 1970;Tierney, 2007). Other theoretical frameworks suggested quite the opposite, where such events had a cohesive effect that drew communities together (see Miller, 2007;Quarantelli & Dynes, 1970.…”

Section: The Human Response To Disastermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In reality, the effects of disasters on crime and disorder may have been one of both consensus and conflict. Tierney (2007), for example, drew on historical accounts of disasters and found that accounts of heroic behavior and altruism masked instances of violence that was oftentimes against lower-class communities.…”

Section: Disasters and Crime: Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

A tale of three cities: Crime and displacement after Hurricane Katrina

Varano

Schafer

Cancino

et al. 2010

Journal of Criminal Justice

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a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oWhen Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, it greatly disrupted both the physical and social structures of that community. One consequence of the hurricane was the displacement of large numbers of New Orleans residents to other cities, including Houston, San Antonio, and Phoenix. There has been media speculation that such a grand-scale population displacement led to increased crime in communities that were recipient of large numbers of displaced New Orleans residents. This study was a case study of three cities with somewhat different experiences with Katrina's diaspora. Time series analysis was used to examine the pre-and post-Katrina trends in six Part I offenses (murder, robbery, aggravated assault, rape, burglary, and auto theft) to assess any impact of such large-scale population shifts on crime in host communities. Contrary to much popular speculation, only modest effects were found on crime. Social disorganization theory was used to frame both the analysis and the interpretation of these results.

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Section: Disasters and Crime: Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Human Response To Disastermentioning

confidence: 99%

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A tale of three cities: Crime and displacement after Hurricane Katrina

Varano

Schafer

Cancino

et al. 2010

Journal of Criminal Justice

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“…However, disaster research has predominantly focused on the post-disaster phase of recovery and mixed findings exist on how the existing social process of cohesion and informal social control, or collective efficacy, are influenced by the disaster itself. Tierney (2007) and Freudenburg (1997) argue that in order to better understand the effects of all types of disasters on social processes, communities, and individuals, disaster research needs to engage with the sociological literature on collective behavior, social capital and the social structure. Accordingly, the current study engages with the criminological literature on collective efficacy, a combination of perceived social cohesion and informal social control and its individual drivers, to better understand how a natural disaster influences how individuals perceive collective efficacy in their community after a major natural disaster.…”

Section: Corrosive and Therapeutic Effects Of Disastersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such an investigation is important, primarily because the more general sociological literature has not extensively examined the extent to which perceptions of collective efficacy may change over time (Tierney, 2007). Further, there has been even less sociological examination of how these perceptions are influenced by major and sudden changes in the social environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the effect of the Queensland “Summer of Disasters” on perceptions of collective efficacy

Fay‐Ramirez

Antrobus

Piquero³

2015

Social Science Research

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The collective efficacy literature suggests that neighborhoods with higher collective efficacy have fewer problems of disorder, increased volunteerism, and higher levels of life satisfaction and wellbeing, along with the increased potential for resilience in the face of a disaster.Although perceptions of collective efficacy typically remain stable over time, rapid or sudden social change, such as experiencing a natural disaster, has the potential to disrupt the neighborhood and the individuals within -including their perceptions of the regulatory mechanisms of collective efficacy. Still, the effect of a major disaster on perceptions of collective efficacy remains relatively unexamined. Longitudinal survey data collected before and after the Queensland flood and cyclone disasters permit a unique investigation of the impact of the disaster on perceptions of social control and social cohesion before and after the disaster. Results show that after this major natural disaster, respondents who were proximately affected reported decreased levels of collective efficacy. Also, persons who experienced the biggest decrease in perceived collective efficacy were those that had lower levels of collective efficacy prior to the disaster. We discuss the mechanisms surrounding disaster preparedness, response, and recovery that may contribute to changing perceptions of collective efficacy.

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Objects of Urban Security, Part I: Background and Research Starts

Molotch

Coe

2015

Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences

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Cities are populated by mechanisms of security. Notice the many intrusive devices and repertoires of control at airport departure gates, office reception, subways, and other sites of modern life. But the presence of security, at least more broadly construed to include infrastructures that channel, inhibit, and intrude, did not originate with 9/11 in America. Indeed, the beginning of cities is virtually synonymous with the rise of apparatuses for exclusion and collective inclusion, the ancient city walls being the prominent exemplar. From the perspective of this essay, it is useful to think of security as an intrinsic part of urban life. To the famous Louis Wirth list of attributes of the city (1938)—numbers, density, and heterogeneity—we need to add instruments of security. Urbanism entails security; it is not a simple add‐on. Deliberately or by happenstance, the presence of large numbers of diverse people in small spaces opens the way for collision. People need to be allocated to particular spaces in specific ways, either by force or guidance through more genteel maneuver. Technological developments in building construction (e.g., high‐rise), transportation appliances (cars and buses), and the impersonality of urban life mean that threats, many arising internally, are omnipresent and nonspecific as to source. This essay asks how this instrumentation works, how it “blends in” with social practices including larger political structures through which it operates. In addressing such questions, we approach important topics that have long occupied the agenda of urban studies and analyses of civic life more generally but most often in separation from one another. As remedy, we must traverse intellectual domains usually treated as discrete—things, cities, and security and find ways to present them as coherently linked. We also need to depart from common orientations that, while critiquing security, surveillance in particular, leave largely unexamined the materiality involved and the social practices of on‐the‐ground human–thing encounter.

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From the Margins to the Mainstream? Disaster Research at the Crossroads

Cited by 370 publications

References 42 publications

A tale of three cities: Crime and displacement after Hurricane Katrina

A tale of three cities: Crime and displacement after Hurricane Katrina

Assessing the effect of the Queensland “Summer of Disasters” on perceptions of collective efficacy

Objects of Urban Security, Part I: Background and Research Starts

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