Social Disorganization, Institutional Anomie and the Spatial Distribution of Instrumental Crime: Towards an Integrated Theory

• In Event: Institutional Anomie and Disorganization Approaches

Abstract

Compared to other industrialized, capitalist societies, the United States is characterized by far higher rates instrumental crime in metropolitan areas. These acts of deviance inflict harm to immediate victims, decrease social integration and cause millions of dollars in economic losses yearly. Drawing from extant Criminological literature that has shown that higher levels of social disorganization and institutional anomie are associated with higher rates of instrumental crime, the present study applies neighborhood-level measures of social disorganization, city-level economic measures of social inequality and state-level indicators of the strength of the family and polity, commitment to welfare and education, and social capital as institutional predictors of crime at the macro-level. By employing innovative spatial analysis methods and multi-level modeling techniques to produce a geographical representation of instrumental crime in the US between 1999 and 2001 from National Neighborhood Crime Study data, US Census and data on census tract-level social disorganization and state-level institutional anomie, this study fills a substantial gap in the literature on integrated macro-level theories of crime. Findings suggest that the strength of the family, polity, commitment to welfare and education, and social capital partially moderate the relationship between measures of social disorganization and social inequality, and instrumental crime.

Author

• Eric R. Louderback, University of Miami