NCJ Number
173824
Date Published
1997
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This paper evaluates as a crime control measure the potential withdrawal of personal respect because of criminal involvement.
Abstract
Some contemporary theories of crime control assume that the degree to which neighborhoods informally can control the nature and amount of local illegal activity is a function of the structure of the networks that integrate residents into the primary and secondary groups of the community, and of those structures that link the area as a whole to the broader social, economic and political institutions of a city. This article examines the effectiveness of one such process--the potential withdrawal of personal respect because of criminal involvement-- within the context of the relational networks of a sample of Oklahoma City residents. The article describes the systemic model of neighborhood crime, exercising social control through network structures, and methods and analysis. Findings support the predictions of this framework in that the degree to which one is concerned about a loss of respect because of involvement in criminal behavior is in part a function of the degree to which one is embedded in the private and parochial structures of local residential communities. Two aspects of the analysis merit further consideration: the essentially equivalent effects of private and parochial participation on the sensitivity to potential loss of respect, and the small proportion of the variation in the sensitivity to public opinion accounted for by private and parochial networks. Tables, figure, bibliography