Social Disorganization, Drug Market Activity, and Neighborhood Violent Crime

Abstract

Although illicit drug activity occurs within local communities, past quantitative research on drug markets and violent crime in the United States has been conducted mainly at the city level. The authors use neighborhood-level data from the city of Miami to test hypotheses regarding the effect of drug activity and traditional indicators of social disorganization on rates of aggravated assault and robbery. The results show that drug activity has robust effects on violent crime that are independent of other disorganization indicators. The authors also find that drug activity is concentrated in neighborhoods with low rates of immigration, less linguistic isolation and ethnic heterogeneity, and where nondrug accidental deaths are prevalent. The authors find no independent effect of neighborhood racial composition on drug activity or violent crime. The results suggest that future neighborhood-level research on social disorganization and violent crime should devote explicit attention to the disorganizing and violence-producing effects of illicit drug activity.

Neighborhood Characteristics in Criminal Offending Among Nigerian Juveniles

“…Furthermore, findings showed that residential mobility is the most important predictor of crimes against property, and disorganization in the neighborhood is strongly related to conduct problems in children (Lambert, Brown, Phillips, & Ialongo, 2004). Little and Steinberg (2006) and Martinez, Rosenfeld, and Mares (2008) found that drug trafficking was influenced by neighborhood-disadvantage indicators. Juveniles living in disadvantaged neighborhoods were more at risk of engaging in these kinds of activities.…”

Application of Space-Time Scan Statistics to Describe Geographic and Temporal Clustering of Visible Drug Activity

“…1 In contrast to person-specific drug markets that are largely sustained through social networks, hidden, and may not be geographically bounded, 5 visible drug markets are characterized by place, facilitating accessibility, drug tourism (e.g., traffic of non-residents to a given neighborhood to purchase drugs), and profit. [5][6][7] Visible drug market activity bears negative implications upon residents living in proximity by glorifying risk behaviors to youth, stigmatizing and marginalizing communities, 5 and serving as a potential determinant of violence, 8 sexually transmitted diseases, 9 and drug abuse. 10,11 Baltimore City is among several US cities where visible drug market activity occurs in some communities and has been associated with economic deprivation, poor housing stock, and social disorder.…”

Linking Neighborhood Characteristics and Drug-Related Police Interventions: A Bayesian Spatial Analysis

“…Drug-related crime has also been linked to neighborhood characteristics [22][23][24]. Drug-related crime is a major problem in our society; it has negative repercussions on health, creates personal and social conflicts, and can perpetuate community deterioration [24,25].…”