Neighborhood Structure, Crime, and Fear of Crime: Testing Bursik and Grasmick's Neighborhood Control Theory (Criminal Justice Recent Scholarship)

Snell finds that minority neighborhoods with high levels of disorder and low levels of neighborhood interaction and trust have higher crime rates. Poor urban neighborhoods with high levels of disorder and fewer family and friendship networks have high levels of fear of crime. Finally, neighborhood disorder is a factor in explaining crime rates and fear of crime. These findings support Bursik and Grasmick’s Systemic Neighborhood Control Theory: that neighborhood differences in levels of crime and fear of crime result from variations in social control; neighborhood social control is a function of the quality and density of formal and informal networks.