Violent Crime in the Western Energy-Development Region

Case studies of “boom towns” in the western United States and the theory of social disorganization predict positive effects of recent growth and energy development on the violent crime rate in small towns and rural areas. Regression results, with controls for local characteristics prior to the energy boom of the 1970s, give little evidence of additive effects of recent growth and energy development on the violent crime rate in nonmetropolitan counties of the major energy-producing states. Long-standing structural problems are better predictors of the violent crime rate than are recent changes associated with energy development.