NCJ Number
88696
Journal
Journal of Police Science and Administration Volume: 10 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1982) Pages: 425-434
Date Published
1982
Length
10 pages
Annotation
A comparison of the police model of suburban crime based on the views of Orange County police chiefs with the urban model of crime shows that the former correlates well with rape while the latter correlates with robbery, assault, burglary, and auto theft in suburbia.
Abstract
A series of intensive interviews was conducted with police chiefs or captains in the three largest cities of Orange County, Calif., to determine their views on the nature and causes of local crime. The respondents agreed that there is no one explanation for crime and that burglary is the largest single category of crime in Orange County. There was variation in respondents' conclusions about the causes of crime. According to the range of crime causes expressed, suburban crime is related to the presence of multiple family housing, illegal aliens, a concentration of youth, and affluence. The classical urban model of crime, on the other hand, emphasizes the role of classical demographic variables such as heterogeneity, density, population size, and city age. Data were obtained for all seven major crimes in 1976 for the 25 cities of Orange County. Data were also obtained as measures of the various causes of crime suggested by the two models. A comparison of the two models indicates that neither the police nor the urban models possess consistent correlates of crime. Of the police variables, multiple family housing is the best indicator of crime, because it is the only variable associated with rape. Affluence is an indicator of auto theft and robbery. The police variable, percentage of youth, explains robbery but not burglary. The urban variables of city age, density, and poverty do well in explaining auto theft, work in concert with percentage of Spanish to explain robbery and assault, while population alone is associated with burglary. Thus, the gain in efficiency of explanation is greatest for auto theft in the urban model and for rape in the police model; however, the urban model fares somewhat better over all categories of crime. Tabular data and 37 references are provided.