This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Skogan, W. G. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The Changing Distribution of Big-City Crime

A Multi-City Time-Series Analysis

Department of Political Science Northwestern University

This article analyzes the changing relationship between the aggregate demographic characteristics of cities, their investment in policing, and officially reported rates of crime. The data are for the nation's 32 largest cities, for the years 1946-1970. Analysis reveals that 1970 data support Louis Wirth's contention that crime rates are highest in large, dense, heterogeneous places; however, data from earlier years indicate that this overlap is a relatively recent phenomenon. I suggest that this reflects the process of suburbanization. Since World War II, white migration out of certain central cities has encouraged social changes which have led to the current stratification of communities. This process re sembles that which led to the formation of stratified neighborhoods within cities during an earlier era; the current covariation between demography and crime thus resembles that found at the subcommunity level 25 years ago.

Urban Affairs Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, 33-48 (1977)
DOI: 10.1177/107808747701300102


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?