Crime in Cities: The Effects of Formal and Informal Social Control

Abstract

This study examines the structural determinants of robbery and homicide offending in 171 American cities with a population greater than 100,000 in 1980. A macro-level social control model is presented that focuses on the consequences for formal and informal social control of police aggressiveness, jail incarceration risk, state incarceration, and family structure. Controlling for known determinants of crime rates such as poverty, inequality, and racial composition, the general question posed is, Do variations in criminal justice sanctions and the structural arrangement of families influence criminal behavior? To disentangle possible confounding effects of city composition in terms of demographic attributes, crime rates were disaggregated by age, race, and sex of offender. At least three major conclusions emerged. First, local official sanctions appear to have significant deterrent effects on robbery offending: cities with a high risk of jail incarceration produce disproportionately low robbery rates regar...