An Examination of Housing Disadvantage and Youth Homicides in Chicago

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

This study aims to focus on one of the components of Shaw and McKay’s Social Disorganization Theory: disadvantage. Disadvantage has been widely accepted as the most important of Social Disorganization Theory’s three components (Blau & Blau, 1982). Specifically, this study aims to focus on how housing insecurity and poor housing conditions affect disadvantage in relation to juvenile perpetrated homicide in Chicago during the years 1985 – 1995. The current study is comprised from two different data sources. The homicide data comes from the Homicides in Chicago, 1965 – 1995 dataset collected by Richard and Carolyn Block. Data from this is excluded to the years 1985 – 1995 and to offenders who are under 19 years old and younger. Ecological variables are derived from the Local Community Fact Book: Chicago Metropolitan Area, 1990. Specifically, the ecological variables used in this study measure different aspects of housing insecurity and housing conditions. The current study will use OLS regression to analyze the effect that housing conditions have on the average aggregate rate of youth perpetrated homicides in Chicago’s community areas from the years 1985 – 1995.

Author

• Cecelia Satterly, Western Kentucky University