Charis E. Kubrin

New Directions in Social Disorganization Theory

Social disorganization theory focuses on the relationship between neighborhood structure, social control, and crime. Recent theoretical and empirical work on the relationship between community characteristics and crime has led to important refinements of social disorganization theory, yet there remain some substantive and methodological deficiencies in this body of work. This article addresses these problems and charts some promising new directions in social disorganization theory.

Breaking News: How Local TV News and Real-World Conditions Affect Fear of Crime

Many Americans report that they are fearful of crime. One frequently cited source of this fear is the mass media. The media, and local television news in particular, often report on incidents of crime, and do so in a selective and sometimes sensational manner. This paper examines the role of the media in shaping crime fears, in conjunction with both demographic factors and local crime conditions. Unlike most previous research in this area, which typically focuses on only one medium, the present study examines the effects of several—local and national television, radio, newspapers, and the Internet. The findings address four theoretical perspectives on the relationship among the media, real-world conditions, and fear of crime.

The Power of Place: Immigrant Communities and Adolescent Violence

Despite popular assumptions, criminologists have long recognized that crime rates are lower for various immigrant groups than for similarly disadvantaged African Americans. What accounts for this paradox? In this study, we consider the role of neighborhood context, specifically, the concentration of immigrants within a community, as a protective factor responsible, in part, for lower crime rates among various immigrant groups. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to examine the relationship between immigrant concentration and adolescent violence, controlling for a variety of individual-level and neighborhood predictors. The findings indicate that immigrant concentration is negatively related to adolescent violence. They also show the protective effects of immigrant concentration are stronger for some types of youth than others.

Structural Covariates Of Homicide Rates: Does Type Of Homicide Matter?

This research extends a 1990 study by Land, McCall, and Cohen on the structural covariates of homicide rates. Examining neighborhoods in St. Louis, this study assesses whether socioeconomic and demographic characteristics are correlated with different types of homicide, thereby addressing the question of whether homicides are sufficiently distinct in nature that their levels are not equally associated with community characteristics. The findings indicate that while residential instability is associated only with felony killings, economic disadvantage is associated with all of the homicide categories. The theoretical significance of the findings for theories of violent crime is discussed.

Misogyny in Rap Music: A Content Analysis of Prevalence and Meanings

Rap music has a reputation for being misogynistic, but surprisingly little research has systematically investigated this dimension of the music. This study assesses the portrayal of women in a representative sample of 403 rap songs. Content analysis identified five gender-related themes in this body of music—themes that contain messages regarding ‘‘essential’’ male and female characteristics and that espouse a set of conduct norms for men and women. Our analysis situates rap music within the context of larger cultural and music industry norms and the local, neighborhood conditions that inspired this music in the first place.

Hispanic Suicide in U.S. Metropolitan Areas: Examining the Effects of Immigration, Assimilation, Affluence, and Disadvantage

This study examines the structural correlates of Hispanic suicide at the metropolitan level using Mortality Multiple Cause‐of‐Death Records and 2000 census data. The authors test competing hypotheses regarding the effects of immigration, assimilation, affluence, economic disadvantage, and ethnic inequality on suicide levels for Hispanics as a whole and disaggregated by immigrant status. The findings point to multiple forces and complex relationships among social structure, culture, and Hispanic suicide. The findings also suggest that these factors have unique effects on native‐born versus immigrant populations. This is the first study to determine the structural correlates of suicide among Hispanics and to assess the macrolevel influence of immigration and cultural assimilation on ethnic‐specific suicide.

NEIGHBORHOOD CORRELATES OF HOMICIDE TRENDS: An Analysis Using Growth-Curve Modeling

This research blends ideas and concepts from social disorganization theory with recent development in growth-curve methodology to examine the association between neighborhood structure and homicide levels over time. Using fifteen years of sequenctial data, we estimate growth-curve models that emphasize the effects of neighborhood socioeconomic and demographic characteristics on longitudinal trajectories of three types of homicide—general alteraction, felony, and domestic—in St. Louis from 1980–1994. The analyses reveal several important findings. First, initial levels of each homicide type are related in similar ways to the neighborhood characteristics. Second, trends for each subtype differ, with the shape of the trajectory depending on the type of homicide under consideration. Finally, the neighborhood factors associated with trends in general altercation, felony, and domestic killings vary for each type. The latter two points suggest the importance of disaggregating homicide rates and exploring the different factors that drive change in the patterns of these rates.

Neighborhood Context and Neighboring Ties

This article analyzes whether neighborhood context or environment in Seattle influences dimensions of social ties among neighbors, independent of the individual attributes of residents such as home ownership and socio‐economic status. Three dimensions of neighbor ties are examined: interaction, organizing collectively, and knowing about neighbors. A number of environmental attributes are considered, including the age of the housing, residential stability, levels of affluence, the presence of blacks and foreign born, the concentration of commercial areas (heterogeneous land use), and the degree of upkeep in the area. While many are correlated with neighbor ties, few have a strong relationship with neighbor ties when individual attributes are controlled statistically. We find, in addition, that the importance of context varies with the type of neighbor tie. We discuss the implications of these findings for formulating a contextual theory of neighborhood life.

Why Some Immigrant Neighborhoods are Safer than Others: Divergent Findings from Los Angeles and Chicago

Contrary to popular opinion, scholarly research has documented that immigrant communities are some of the safest places around. Studies repeatedly find that immigrant concentration is either negatively associated with neighborhood crime rates or not related to crime at all. But are immigrant neighborhoods always safer places? How does the larger community context within which immigrant neighborhoods are situated condition the immigration-crime relationship? Building on the existing literature, this study examines the relationship between immigrant concentration and violent crime across neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Chicago—two cities with significant and diverse immigrant populations. Of particular interest is whether neighborhoods with high levels of immigrant concentration that are situated within larger immigrant communities are especially likely to enjoy reduced crime rates. This was found to be the case in Chicago but not in Los Angeles, where neighborhoods with greater levels of immigrant concentration experienced higher, not lower, violent crime rates when located within larger immigrant communities. We speculate on the various factors that may account for the divergent findings.

Deindustrialization, Disadvantage and Suicide among Young Black Males

Wilsons deindustrialization thesis has been the focus of much recent research. This study is the first to empirically test his thesis as it relates to suicide among young black males, which has increased dramatically over the past two decades. Using 1998-2001 Mortality Multiple Cause-of-Death Records and 2000 census data, we examine the influence of concentrated disadvantage on suicide among young black males across U.S. cities. After establishing its role in shaping suicide rates, we explore the extent to which industrial composition (the outcome of deindustrialization) affects concentrated disadvantage in urban communities. We perform similar analyses for whites to compare and contrast explanatory processes. Our findings show that while disadvantage is related to suicide for young black and white males, industrial composition only influences the structural covariates of suicide among blacks. These findings demonstrate the ability of Wilsons thesis to help explain a pressing social problem – rising rates of young black male suicide.