Modernization, Structural Characteristics, and Societal Rates of Crime: An Application of Blau's Macrosociological Theory

This essay discusses some important methodological problems involved in the testing of Blau's theory of occupational differentiation with cross-national data. We argued that there are two critical problems which preclude such testing at present; namely, the inadequacy of available occupational classifications and the underdeveloped state of prestige measurement. The precise nature and extent of these problems are illustrated with detailed occupational data for a sample of ten modern industrial nations. The essay concludes with some remarks on the general implications of the methodological issues raised in the analysis.

By applying and extending the logic of Peter Blau's theory of social structure, this article identifies structural features of U.S. counties that are associated with high levels of crime, the presence of activist organizations as ideologically diverse as civil rights organizations and antiabortion groups, and low levels of voter turnout. Key empirical findings include positive effects of ethnic heterogeneity, religious heterogeneity, and income inequality on both the crime rate and the number of activist organizations in counties. Educational inequality diminishes the positive effect of income inequality on activism and has a strong negative effect on the crime rate. Many structural conditions associated with high numbers of activist organizations and a high crime rate decrease voter turnout rates.

This paper seeks further evidence on the relationship between population diversity and violent crime. In an earlier paper, we elaborated on Peter Blau's theory of population diversity by developing a conception of population diversity consisting of four types: biological, structural, cultural, and dynamic. Further, we argued that each type of population diversity could be distinguished along two dimensions that we called complexity and integration. Having conceived of population diversity in this manner, we maintained that complexity of population diversity facilitates violent interactions in society while integration of population diversity minimizes violent interactions. Accordingly, we hypothesized that societies characterized by high complexity and low integration would suffer the highest rates of violent crime while those characterized by low complexity and high integration would enjoy the lowest levels of violent crime. In the analysis reported in this paper, we pursue two further questions related to this basic hypothesis. First, we ask whether the hypothecated relationship between population diversity and violent crime holds across three different measures of violent crime (i.e., homicide, rape, and robbery). Second, we investigate whether the alleged relationship between population diversity and violent crime is contingent upon the form of violent crime and type/dimension of population diversity that is considered. While our limited sample of 17 nations makes strong conclusions hazardous at best, we can say that the hypothecated relationship between population diversity and violence entertained by this research enjoyed considerable support in the analysis reported below. At a minimum, further research with a larger sample and perhaps more refined measures of the relevant concepts seems justified.

Using data on interracial marriage and interracial violent crime for a sample of 25 metropolitan communities, this article tests several hypotheses derived from Blau's theory of social structure. Consistent with theoretical predictions, moderate, positive correlations are found between rates of interracial marriage and crime. The article also explores the relationship between the dimensions of social structure identified by Blau-group size, heterogeneity, intergroup inequality ("consolidation"), and segregation-and these two forms of social association. Both interracial marriage and interracial crime are influenced significantly by at least one of these structural conditions. Contrary to initial expectations, however, the effects of social structure vary by the form of association. The rate of interracial marriage is positively affected by the degree of racial income equality, whereas interracial crime rates are more strongly influenced by relative group size and racial residential segregation. The article concludes with a few speculative remarks concerning the differential effects of structural variables on different forms of association.

The synthesis of discrete theories and principles to generate ever more comprehensive and unified general theory is fundamental to theoretical science. This paper, after introducing the authors' conception of what such a process involves, combines two structural theories: Blau's macrosociological, social differentiation theory and Granovetter's strength-of-weak-ties principle. Each was previously formalized within a common biased-net mathematical framework. These two formalizations are integrated within a single approach to the study of social relations. Blau's theory is associated with quantities such as heterogeneity, consolidation, and a bias parameter pertaining to homophily. Granovetter's principle is formalized in terms of another bias parameter pertaining to the likelihood of relational closure in triads. A concluding discussion examines empirical literature on diffusion processes to see if hypotheses implied by the unified theory are supported by evidence.

This paper reports the results of an empirical test of the hypothesis that three mechanisms of poverty reduction-improved market opportunities, government cash transfer payments, and government in-kind transfer payments have differential impacts on the relative return to legal and illegal activity and, in turn, on the rate of property crime. In addition, the paper reports empirical tests of the hypothesis that these differential impacts of market and government policy mechanisms vary by type of property crime. Employing measures of each of these mechanisms, time series models for Burglary, Auto Theft, and Robbery are estimated from yearly, national, Uniform Crime Report (UCR) data for the period 1959 through 1995. The results indicate that poverty reductions due to improved market conditions have similar impacts on each type of property crime. However, the direction and magnitude of the impact of different government policy mechanisms varies between and within particular types of crimes. The paper concludes with an application of these findings to recent legislation, The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Act (TANF), which overhauled the federal public assistance program.

This dissertation is a comparative theoretical analysis of human rights, research ethics and human subjects protection. The history of human rights is a long one, but for the sake of immediacy and focus, the author will limit the discussion to events pertaining to the last century and the beginning of a new one. Through a process of sociocultural review of significant human rights and scientific events pertinent to research involving human subjects, this work will examine the evolution of research ethics in the United States, Germany and Hungary. These nations are not intended to be representative of international research ethics as a whole, but their 20th century histories starkly depict how the forces of democracy, national socialism and communism have shaped our view of how science has been used to transform societies and our beliefs regarding the human condition. The author intends to place these societies and the research topic in a theoretical context that will add depth and resonance to the discussion by examining how the aforementioned political schemes, and the ethical codes which have arisen within them, came to produce the greatness and tragedy documented in these pages. The theories to be used in this analysis are structural functionalism, general systems theory, conflict theory, Peter Blau's exchange theory of power, and symbolic interactionism. The art and science of social work stand amidst the issue of how societies come to address the ethics of human subjects protection in research. With its historic dedication to the protection of human rights and the enfranchisement of all peoples within and across societies, social work is positioned to negotiate and implement the principles codified into the traditions and laws governing international human subjects protection for research participants. The dissertation will begin with sociohistorical review of the nations under study to provide necessary context and information about the research topic. A theoretical analysis will follow. The dissertation will include a recommendation for a code of research ethics which has broad applicability across cultures, and conclude with a discussion of the role of the social work profession in its operationalization.

Blau's (1977) theory uses properties of macro social structure to deduce properties of micro social structure, the network of observed social relations among individuals. This paper continues the work of Fararo (1981) in providing a formal linkage between these two levels using the concepts of biased net theory. The application provides versions of Blau's major theorems that uncover implications not readily apparent from his verbal presentation, permits the extension of his theory beyond characteristics along which preferences for ingroup association exist to ones along which preferences for outgroup association may exist (and ones even stranger where both preference types may exist), demonstrates the theoretical basis for some negative results of recent research (Blau et al., 1982), and offers a rigorous basis for a general formal theory of-social structure's influences on people's associations with one another.

OF DISSERTATION EXAMINING THE STRAIN-CRIME RELATIONSHIP AMONG AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF AGNEW’S GENERAL STRAIN THEORY Agnew’s (1992; 2006) general strain theory (GST) has become one of the foremost theories to explain crime in contemporary criminology. While it has undergone several empirical tests over the years, there remain many understudied aspects of the theory. The current study addresses some of these aspects by longitudinally exploring the relationship between multiple types of strain and drug and non-drug crime among a sample of African American women. Data for this study were collected as part of a larger study on how drug use and criminality are related to health disparities, particularly HIV, and service utilization among African American drug-using and non-drug-using women across justice system status—prison, probation, and community, no supervision. The overall sample comprised of 462 women who completed structured interviews at four time intervals with a response rate of 87 percent. The study was guided by three specific research aims. First, this study examined whether various types of strain―economic hardship, criminal victimization, and gendered racism―were conducive to different types of crime. Second, this study examined whether certain negative emotional states―anger, depression, and anxiety―mediated the effects on the strain-crime relationships among the women. And third, this study examined whether certain factors―social support, coping skills, and spiritual well-being―moderated the strain-crime relationships among the women. Findings revealed all three forms of strain had statistically significant effects on involvement in crimes unrelated to drug use, such as check fraud or burglary, among the women in the sample, while only economic hardship and victimization had significant effects on drug crime. In addition, partial mediation was found between economic hardship, anger, and non-drug crime and complete mediation occurred between gendered racism, anger, and non-drug crime. That is, women in the sample became angry after experiencing these types of strain and responded to that feeling by engaging in crimes unrelated to drugs. Lastly, moderation was only found in the logistic regression model examining gendered racism, social support, and non-drug crime. In other words, women with perceived high social support were less likely to commit non-drug crimes than those with low social support except when their gendered racism experiences became extremely high. This study’s findings will make significant contributions to the scholarship across multiple disciplines, as well as potentially inform practice and policy. Drawbacks and directions for future research are discussed.

Race, economic inequality, and violent crime

Gender differences in criminal activity among Jewish and Arab junior and senior high schoolers in Israel

Introduction. The subject of the study was the phenomenon of professional mercenary crime, which occupies a key place in the crime of Russia from ancient times to the present day. Crime is a complex mass historically stable phenomenon consisting in a set of socially dangerous illegal and criminally punishable acts committed during a certain period in a specific territory. As an extremely internally complex phenomenon, crime is differentiated into separate types and varieties in accordance with the characteristic features of its manifestation. Its types can be distinguished by the purpose, method, time of commission, characteristics of the criminal's personality, criminal motivation, etc. Traditionally, the leading sector of the crime structure is mercenary crime, which mostly intersects with the professional crime sector. The purpose of the work was a comprehensive criminological examination of the phenomenon of professional mercenary crime and the development of recommendations for government agencies, law enforcement agencies, organizations and members of civil society on the prevention of this type of crime. Methodology. The complex of research methods were the methods used in criminology, which form the scientific basis for the study of criminological phenomena. Results. According to the results of the study, conclusions of a criminological nature were obtained, describing such aspects of the phenomenon under consideration as the causes and conditions of the considered type of crime, its structure, social and psychological characteristics of the criminal's personality. Conclusions. As conclusions, the author formulated proposals of a preventive nature regarding the prevention of the capital type of crime, which can be used in practice in the processes of criminological forecasting and planning.

Few studies have explored Louis Wirth’s propositions regarding the independent effects of population size and density, due to the conceptual difficulty in distinguishing between them. We directly address this conundrum by conceptualizing these as micro-population density and macro-population density. We propose two novel measures for these constructs: population density exposure to capture micro-density, and a measure of population within a twenty-mile radius to capture macro-density. We combine the theoretical insights of Wirth with routine activities theory to posit and find strong nonlinear effects of micro-density on crime rates, as well as the moderating effect of macro-density. We find strong evidence of macro social processes for population size, including that (1) its strongest effect occurred for crimes generally between strangers (robberies and motor vehicle thefts); (2) there was virtually no effect for homicides, a type of crime that often occurs among non-strangers. For micro-density, our findings include (1) strong curvilinear effects for the three types of property crime; (2) diminishing positive effects for robbery and homicide; and (3) a strikingly different pattern for aggravated assault. The effects for micro-density are stronger than for macro-density, a finding unexplored in the extant literature. We discuss the implications of these results within the context of Wirth’s theoretical framework as well as routine activities theory and suggest ways to extend these findings.

We use national and regional Canadian data to analyse the relationship between economic activity (as reflected by the unemployment rate) and crime rates. Given potential aggregation bias, we disaggregate the crime data and look at the relationship between six different types of crimes rates and unemployment rate; we also disaggregate the data by region. We employ an error correction model in our analysis to test for short-run and long-run dynamics. We find no evidence of long-run relationship between crime and unemployment, when we look at both disaggregation by type of crime and disaggregation by region. Lack of evidence of a long-run relationship indicates we have no evidence of the motivation hypothesis. For selected types of property crimes, we find some evidence of a significant negative short-run relationship between crime and unemployment, lending support to the opportunity hypothesis. Inclusion of control variables in the panel analysis does not alter the findings, qualitatively or quantitatively.

The impact of community residents’ occupational structure on the spatial distribution of different types of crimes