Date of Award

Fall 2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Sociology & Criminal Justice

Program/Concentration

Applied Sociology

Committee Director

Allison Chappell

Committee Member

Scott Maggard

Committee Member

Randy Gainey

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.S62 J664 2009

Abstract

The link between community characteristics and crime has been at the forefront of criminological research for some time. Social disorganization theory focuses on the relationship between structural characteristics of communities and crime. Recent examination of the social disorganization perspective has emphasized the role of informal social control as mediating the effects of structural characteristics on victimization. In this study, contemporary social disorganization theory was tested using data from the U.S. Census Bureau: Census Tract Fact Finder (2000) and the Southeastern Virginia Community Survey (2008). This research addressed three central research questions: Is there a relationship between structural characteristics (i.e., poverty, residential mobility, and ethnic heterogeneity) and victimization? Controlling for structural characteristics, what is the impact of disorder on victimization? How do neighborhood trust, organizational participation, and quality of police protection mediate the relationship between structural characteristics and disorder on victimization? The findings of the current study partially supported social disorganization theory. While poverty was found to be positively related to victimization, residential mobility was found to be inversely related to victimization, and ethnic heterogeneity was not found to be a significant predictor of victimization. Neighborhood disorder was positively related to victimization, neighborhood trust and quality of police protection mediated the effects of structural characteristics and disorder on victimization, and organizational participation was found not to be a significant predictor of victimization.

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DOI

10.25777/twkc-4679

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