Neighborhood Characteristics, Unstructured Socializing and Crime: A Macro-Micro-Micro-Macro Perspective

• In Event: Crime and Place: A Micro-Macro Perspective

Abstract

According to the influential sociologist Coleman, associations at the macro-level may be explained by scrutinizing the mediating mechanisms at the micro- or individual level. The present study examines whether micro individual routine activities, in particular adolescents’ involvement in unstructured socializing, explain the macro-relations between neighborhood collective efficacy, socioeconomic status, residential stability, ethnic heterogeneity and physical disorder on one hand and neighborhood crime rates on the other hand. Not only are the residential neighborhoods of adolescents taken into account, but also the hours that are spent unstructured socializing outside of the own neighborhood. The study employs innovative methods for data collection and combines, among else, Space Time Budget interview data about the locations where adolescents spend their time unstructured socializing, police data on neighborhood crime rates and Systematic Social Observations of physical disorder in neighborhood areas.

Author

• Evelien Hoeben, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR)