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Relations between human beings and the physical environment have been the foci of research and speculation for at least two millennia. One such focus has dealt with the relationships between climate and crime. This paper develops four hypotheses concerning the interaction between violent behavior and the thermal environment. These hypotheses relate to the structural density of local areas, alcohol consumption across the city, calendar effects, and neighborhood context. We developed a taxonomy of high-, medium-, and low-status residential areas (“neighborhoods”) in Dallas, Texas. These groupings formed the basis of several crosstabulations in which the relative frequency of aggravated assaults was the dependent variable. Neighborhood types differed markedly in the amplitude of their summer peaking of assaults low-status neighborhoods having a peak not amenable to explanation entirely on the basis of month length or number of weekend days in the months. Assaults directly linked to alcohol sales establishments were less prominent than expected. Apartment-based assaults were heavily overrepresented in the low-status neighborhoods. Although findings reported here are exploratory and suggestive, they imply that giving greater attention to environmental influences in geographic contexts may be appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a simultaneous examination of three noteworthy causes of migration. The influences of the nuclear family life cycle, orientation toward the extended family, and economic aspirations upon the propensity to migrate were analyzed for husbands and wives with relatives in the same community. Multivariate analysis of variance and stepwise regressions of the survey data were utilized in testing several hypotheses. There was support for the ideas that (1) propensity to migrate declines during successive stages of the nuclear family life cycle, (2) propensity to migrate is inversely related to extended family orientations for husbands and wives with relatives in the same community, and (3) propensity to migrate is directly related to economic aspirations. It is suggested that future theory and research on the causes of migration need to focus on decision making in which the implications of the nuclear family life cycle can be further specified at the personal-psychological level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to bridge the present gap between ideas and the testing of them, rather than offering original explanations of delinquency or suggesting more sophisticated techniques for handling data. The material presented here empirically testing some causal propositions about the etiology of delinquency is a different approach from the traditional correlational study with its cautions about deducing causation. Because of their utility in guiding policy decisions and in constructing and advancing theory, causal models should be attempted even though many weaknesses exist when conventional data are used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]