Community Change and Patterns of Delinquency

• NCJ Number: 88151
• Journal: American Journal of Sociology Volume: 88 Issue: 1 Dated: (1982) Pages: 24-42
• Author(s): R J Bursik; J Webb
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 19 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Revised version of a paper presented at the annual meetings of the American Society of Criminology, San Francisco, November 1980

Annotation

A reexamination of the data used in the classic Shaw and McKay delinquency research, indicates that the Shaw and McKay model is tenable only between 1940 and 1950 and that since 1950, changing neighborhoods tend to be characterized by changing levels of delinquency.

Abstract

Burgess (1925) proposed that the urban growth process can be modeled by a series of circular zones, centered around the midpoint of a city. These zones expand their areas by the invasion and succession of the next outer zone, resulting in a relocation of individuals and groups. Groups assimilating themselves into the economic and occupational structure of a city redistribute themselves by 'invading' the next outward zone, gradually replacing the groups residing there. One of the most important findings of the Shaw and McKay delinquency in Chicago remained relatively stable over time despite processes of ethnic and racial invasion and succession. A review of their data permits a study of change during the period 1940-50, 1950-60, and 1960-70. Four demographic variables are used as indicators of the population redistribution processes implied by the invasion/succession concept: (1) by decade changes in the population size of a community, (2) percentage of foreign-born whites, (3) percentage of nonwhites, and (4) levels of household density. A fifth variable, the delinquency indicator, is the change in the delinquency rate per 1,000 males aged 10-17 during the periods examined. The residual changes in the delinquency rate between 1940 and 1950 are only randomly associated with concurrent changes in the indicators of invasion and succession; however, between 1950 and 1960, community change is associated with over one-third of the total variance in the change in areal delinquency rates. Such a relationship continues between 1960 and 1970, although the relationship is not as strong as during the previous period. Implications of these findings are discussed. Tabular data and 58 references are provided.