The Social Contexts of Urban Crime

Abstract

There are many ways in which crimes may be classified (Glaser, 1974, pp. 45–78). The legal definition of crime is a common point of departure for crime classifications. The legal definition specifies kinds of behavior that are illegal (e.g., hitting, vandalizing, and stealing) and sometimes specific under what conditions they are illegal but normally gives rather limited information about the social contexts in which a criminal act takes place.1 The social circumstances of legally defined categories of crime can be very heterogeneous. Therefore, a study of the social contexts of legally defined categories of crime may in itself contribute to our understanding of the behavior in question and its causes. Moreover, a crime classification based on the social contexts of crime may be a more fruitful point of departure than a legal classification for other types of analysis (e.g., ecological and environmental analyses of the crime distribution and its correlates).