Variants of Social Disorganization: Spatial Comparison Between Urban and Rural Counties

• In Event: Crime and Place: Advancing Place Based Theory

Abstract

While there is a well-developed body of empirical evidence that social disorganization is positively related with crime, much of the existing studies focus exclusively in urban or metropolitan areas. Less is known about the relationship between social disorganization and crime in rural or non-metropolitan areas. Existing research on this topic have yielded mixed results or have failed to compare the spatial difference of how traditional measures of social disorganization influence crime. Understanding how the relationship between social structure and crime differs across urban and rural communities contributes to the social disorganization framework regarding generalizability. Using crime data provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and neighborhood measures of disorganization from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), the present study examines the spatial dependence of Part I crime in counties across the United States, as well as the geographic relationship of social disorganization measures on Part I crime.

Author

• Shun Feng, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY