NCJ Number
79576
Date Published
1980
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This review assesses George Kreps' study of the relationship between ecological factors and a rural crime index in Ohio.
Abstract
Nine Ohio counties with rural populations were selected from three clusters on a stratified nonrandom basis. Data were collected from field interviews, census data, and Uniform Crime Reports. The research design did not use a control group and should be considered to have employed a preexperimental methodology. The dependent variable--crime index from the nine sample counties--was tested against the following independent variables: community satisfaction, distance of buildings from nearest incorporated place, distance of buildings from road, number of buildings, condition of buildings, number of acres, distance of nearest neighbor, acquaintance with nearest neighbor, and degree of acquaintance with nearest neighbor. The study indicated that the data do not support either the hypothesis that the level of community satisfaction is not related to the crime rate or the hypothesis suggesting that crime rates would be associated with the distance between neighbors. Furthermore, the data do not support the hypothesis that areas where neighbors knew each other would have lower crime rates. Other geographic and 'defensible space' factors were not shown to be related to the crime rate, but a statistically significant relationship did appear between the population size of a county and its crime level. Many of these conclusions are based on analyses of variance, and there is a question regarding the appropriateness of the way in which these techniques were used in the research. In addition, the hierarchical structure of the data, where the respondents were nested within the counties, may have confounded the conclusions. For the original report, see NCJ 45403.