Self-Regulation Of Crime

Introduction

As life goes on as usual, the people of a community become more in tune with their surroundings and ultimately find themselves in a rhythm. However, the very basis of a community’s stability lies within the fact that they run as a unit. When the balance is offset, the community is sent awry. These neighborhoods and communities are fragile in that they function by mere appearance and status, with appearance being the physical exterior of the households, and status being the economic, political, and social outlook of the community. Ideally, in a simple world, the status and appearance of a neighborhood should not influence the crime rate within. However, that is not the case. There appears to be some truth in the general sense of

Firstly, economic downturn amongst a neighborhood’s residents has been linked to higher rates of violent crime amongst residents. Secondly, the social ties among those residents within the same neighborhood also affects the crime rate. Residents that feel as if they have some social connections to other residents of the neighborhood feel more secure than those who feel as if they have no connection at all (Sampson, Raudenbush, & Earls, 1997). This self-regulation of social interactions acts as a minor deterrent towards crime in the neighborhood. Additionally, some minor factors that may influence crime rate within a neighborhood include perception in the form of residential tolerance of crime, the political economy of the area, and the spatial location of the neighborhood. The influence these factors have on the crime rate was observed in prior research; however, research into the effects is still being studied currently. The belief that a “run-down” neighborhood would have a higher crime rate than a more up kept neighborhood can be validated, to some extent, by the current iterations of

423). This in turn would decrease the overall structure of the neighborhood and encourage the growth of crime within. These multiple factors would most likely have an effect on the relationship between violent crime rate and run-down neighborhoods, since the characteristics of run-down neighborhoods generally correlate alongside lower socioeconomic variables. Social, economic, spatial, and physical aspects are some of the factors that influence the crime rate within a neighborhood