Social demographics of crime in a military community in the United States

Abstract

Prior research has focused on relationships between the socio-demographics of a neighborhood and neighborhood crime levels. The current study contributes to the growing body of neighborhoods and crime research by examining socio-demographics of neighborhoods in a new context – a military community. Military communities provide an interesting context in which to study the connection between socio-demographic features and crime as they tend to be tightly knit, with strong informal and formal ties. This research adds to the neighborhoods and crime research by exploring the influence of the larger context in which neighborhoods are imbedded. The results demonstrate that certain socio-demographic indicators correlate with crime in a manner that is consistent with that found in past research, but that relationship is amplified when models include measurement of the percentage of residents who are military service members. Implications for research and theory are discussed.