Understanding the Social Context of New Parochialism

• In Event: 423 - Section on Crime, Law and Deviance Paper Session. Classic and Emerging Perspectives

Abstract

The concept of new parochialism was developed to explain contemporary informal social control, in which diminished private and parochial controls are replaced by parochial-public partnerships. In this paper, we extend the concept of new parochialism by applying it to a range of communities. We extend the insights of previous work on the impact of racial and place-based dynamics on responses to crime in urban neighborhoods by exploring how intersections between race and geography shape community responses to crime in urban and rural communities. To do so, we use data from four sites—three urban communities and one rural community—in California and Massachusetts. Each of the four communities has a distinct response to crime based on the intersection of racial composition, geography, and local cultures. A community’s relationships with political entities, law enforcement, and the criminal justice system and its ability to mobilize these institutions shape community members’ sense of crime and criminals and appropriate responses to crime. In addition, narratives of place, shaped by race and class dynamics, geographical location, and history, influence the perceived relationship between offenders and the community.

Authors

• Andrea M. Leverentz, University of Massachusetts-Boston

• Monica Williams, Weber State University