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NO COMMUNITY IS AN ISLAND: THE EFFECTS OF RESOURCE DEPRIVATION ON URBAN VIOLENCE IN SPATIALLY AND SOCIALLY PROXIMATE COMMUNITIES *
Author(s) -
MEARS DANIEL P.,
BHATI AVINASH S.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
criminology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.467
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1745-9125
pISSN - 0011-1384
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9125.2006.00056.x
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , resource (disambiguation) , argument (complex analysis) , relative deprivation , social deprivation , homicide , affect (linguistics) , geography , inequality , criminology , sociology , socioeconomics , poison control , social psychology , psychology , human factors and ergonomics , economic growth , economics , environmental health , biology , medicine , computer network , biochemistry , mathematical analysis , communication , mathematics , computer science
The link between resource deprivation and urban violence has long been explored in criminological research. Studies, however, have largely ignored the potential for resource deprivation in particular communities to affect rates of violence in others. The relative inattention is notable because of the strong theoretical grounds to anticipate influences that extend both to geographically contiguous areas and to those that, though not contiguous, share similar social characteristics. We argue that such influences—what we term spatial and social proximity effects, respectively—constitute a central feature of community dynamics. To support this argument, we develop and test theoretically derived hypotheses about spatial and social proximity effects of resource deprivation on aggregated and disaggregated homicide counts. Our analyses indicate that local area resource deprivation contributes to violence in socially proximate communities, an effect that, in the case of instrumental homicides, is stronger when such communities are spatially proximate. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for theories focused on community‐level social processes and violence, and for policies aimed at reducing crime in disadvantaged areas.