NCJ Number
133647
Journal
Crime, Law, and Social Change Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: (September 1991) Pages: 155-175
Date Published
1991
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This study investigates factors that enhance criminal behavior, hypothesizing that familial and community attributes usually associated with increasing crime rates are merely a reflection of transformations within the greater economic structure. These authors view those familial and community attributes as intervening variables which are either attenuated or amplified in their ability to control criminal behavior by overall economic conditions.
Abstract
Time series data on crime rates and industrial employment, collected over a 26-year period in New York, Detroit, Newark, Boston, and Philadelphia are used in this study. Structural change is measured by industrial employment, and crime is measured by burglary, robbery, and murder. The findings suggest a strong relationship between declining industrial employment and rising crime rates. The magnitude of this relationship depends on variations in the high and low levels of industrial decline. The findings support the hypothesis that familial and community factors are intervening variables between large-scale structural changes and criminal behavior. The authors maintain that crime prevention efforts must be accompanied by strategies of industrial reorganization. 24 figures and 10 notes