Search

After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 most countries in this region experienced an increase in personal and property crimes rates. However, the distribution of crime across countries and the magnitude of change in crime rates during the post-communist transformations vary significantly within the region. This research poster will highlight some results from a study examining the reciprocal relationship between social change and crime rates in Eastern Europe. It examines how the different processes of democratization and marketization in the region, and the different degrees of success in these areas, are related to variations in crime rates. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1983 Freda Adler wrote Nations NOT Obsessed with Crime, a study that identified ten low crime countries and studied their social characteristics and criminal justice systems in order to identify common traits that contributed to low crime rates in each of these societies. This work led to the coinage of synnomie, a term used to describe nations that have harmonious cultural values and formal and informal mechanisms of social control that result in low crime rates. Despite the theoretical importance of Adler's work, cross-national criminologists soon forgot about low crime countries. This study resurrects the idea that we can learn just as much about criminogenic social conditions from countries that do not have a serious problem with crime as we can from countries with especially high crime rates. It takes advantage of newer sources of information, particularly quantitative, cross-national crime data, to first establish sound criteria for categorizing countries as "low crime" and then to describe the macro-level social, political, and economic conditions of those countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From community notification measures to residency restrictions, laws regulating sex offenders are explicitly spatial. However, the spatial dynamics of sex offenders' behaviors and the physical contexts in which they live are not well documented; therefore, we do not know whether the assumptions underlying these laws are tenable. This study explores the spatial patterns of the residences of registered sex offender in Chicago, and the types of neighborhoods in which they live. Drawing upon the extensive literature regarding the neighborhood contexts of crime within Chicago, this project uses data from the Illinois sex offender registry, the 2000 census, and the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to examine the influence of social disorganization, collective efficacy, formal control, residency restrictions, and spatial autocorrelation on the distribution of registered sex offenders' residences across Chicago neighborhoods. Results from multivariate regression analysis indicate sex offenders are more likely to reside in areas that exhibit particular characteristics, but race plays an important role in terms of which characteristics are influential. Support is found for the inclusion of controls for spatial autocorrelation in analytical models. This paper concludes with a discussion on the implications of neighborhood context for reintegration, recidivism, and formal and informal social control. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent legislation to monitor and control convicted sex offenders outside of correctional facilities has been designed to quell public concerns over notification about sex offenders within communities and the regulation of their access to potential victims. However, there has been little empirical research about the effectiveness and implications of mandatory public registration and residency restrictions. This study situates this particular social problem within the criminological literature on crime and communities. Relationships among neighborhood levels of social disorganization and collective efficacy are examined against the spatial distribution of registered sex offenders using sex offender registrations, census data, and survey data for the city of Chicago. This study seeks to explain differences in the concentration of registered sex offenders at the neighborhood level. Lastly, this study examines the implications of residency restrictions on neighborhood resources for formal and informal social control. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime maps at the incident level often inevitably reveal victims' home addresses, rendering victim privacy at risk. This research project explores various methods of data transformation and perturbation in the effort of concealing actual physical locations of crime incidents, while maintaining patterns of distribution for spatial analysis. The research is based on crime data from law enforcement agencies and utilizes various spatial and statistical analytical tools including ArcGIS. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the elder population in the United States continues to grow, there has been an increased interest in crime victimization against this population. Although past research on elder victimization has largely focused on physical, mental, and sexual abuse, recent research has begun to assess property crime victimization, with attention to financial exploitation. Studies evaluating financial exploitation of the elderly population have encountered data limitations, often relying on small populations or qualitative research to determine the extent of this victimization. Addressing this concern, this paper utilizes National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data to assess the extent to which the elderly are victims of such property crimes, as well as to present an exploratory analysis of both the incidents and the relationships of the individuals involved. Finally, this presentation will discuss the unique attributes of NIBRS data, and its potential to inform public policy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 most countries experienced an increase in personal and property crimes rates. However, the distribution of crime across countries and the magnitude of change in crime rates during the post-communist transformations vary significantly within the region. The countries also experienced different processes of democratization, particularly with respect to the speed with which the rule of law was established, the distribution of power among political players, the renegotiation of the relationship between civil society and government, the reformulation of social control institutions, the extent of civil liberties, and the consolidation of democracy. This paper examines quantitative and qualitative data to assess the extent to which variations in democratization processes in East-Central Europe are related to variations in personal and property crime rates during the post-communist transformations. The East-Central European cases are used to illustrate the circumstances under which democratization can contribute to either social order or disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National Archive of Criminal Justice Data National Institute of Justice Data Resources Program Presenters: Janet Stamatel, National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48106; phone: (734) 998-9835; e-mail: jpstamat@icpsr.umich.edu; homepage: http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/. Staff from the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) will exhibit the resources available through the Data Resources Program of the National Institute of Justice. The program was established to ensure the preservation and availability of research and evaluation data collected through NIJ-funded research. Data sets collected through NIJ-funded research. Databases are made available to others in order to support new research to replicate original findings to test hypothesis. All NACJD data collections are freely available to the public through the Internet. Staff will demonstrate how to search for and download data files and support documentation and will provide information about funding and training opportunities available through the Data Resources Program. The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data is a part of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]