Does Crime Cause Crime? How Ecological Labels Could Cause Outward Mobility and Increased Neighborhood Crime

• In Event: Neighborhood Change, Policy Interventions, and Crime/Disorder

Abstract

Research concerning neighborhoods and crime has tended to be cross-sectional while attempting to identify causes, rather than effects, of crime. Accordingly, the few theories attempting to explain how high crime rates persist in neighborhoods over generations often fail to consider the role of residents’ perceptions and fear of crime in their neighborhoods. By integrating literature concerning fear of crime, ecological labeling, and social control, this paper presents a mechanism through which crime could cause increased crime at the neighborhood level. Research concerning reactions to crime is often critiqued for inadequately conceptualizing fear of crime. In this paper, fear of crime is proposed to function as an ecological label, having self-fulfilling effects on a neighborhood’s crime rate. Both fear of crime and ecological labels are social constructions residents derive from the interpretation of social information, primarily through informal interactions with co-residents. When fear of crime reaches some unspecified threshold in a neighborhood, emigration could increase, causing weakened social control and an ensuing increase in crime. This paper begins by examining previous theories understanding crime as the cause of further crime in neighborhoods. Subsequently, the mechanism presented in this paper is explored in detail, drawing on extant theories and research.

Author

• Dylan Reynolds, University of Guelph