NCJ Number
84530
Editor(s)
S Lagoy
Date Published
1981
Length
112 pages
Annotation
Essays dealing with new perspectives on urban crime discuss class and sexual bias in urban criminology, the dimensions of urban crime, and the rethinking of the urban police function.
Abstract
An essay on women, crime, and social change notes that although crimes by females have been increasing, albeit not in significant proportion to crimes by men, there is no indication that female offenders have been strongly influenced by the Women's Liberation Movement, but the Liberation Movement has increased researchers' attention to factors in female crime and the treatment of female offenders in the criminal justice system. A study of subcultural theories of delinquency, which attribute delinquent behavior generally to lower-class males' efforts to achieve status to fend off the anxiety of failure to achieve middle-class success values, shows a lack of empirical support for such theories and argues for a more comprehensive explanation of delinquency. An essay on the geographic distribution of crime indicates that the census-tract analysis of crime depicts it in a highly generalized fashion, thus concealing gross disparities in both the patterns and types of offenses at the micro level (grid level). Other essays consider (1) methodological approaches to the development of sentencing guidelines, (2) the development of a comprehensive law enforcement planning network that parallels the application of prevention categories used in mental health systems, and (3) a rationale for the most restrictive policy in the police use of deadly force. Footnotes accompany each essay. For individual entries, see NCJ 84531-36.