Citizen crime patrols and their effect on fear of crime in urban neighborhoods.
Item
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Title
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Citizen crime patrols and their effect on fear of crime in urban neighborhoods.
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Identifier
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AAI8820896
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identifier
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8820896
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Creator
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Rouse, John Jay.
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Contributor
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Adviser: James P. Levine
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Date
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1988
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Criminology and Penology
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Abstract
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This study examines the literature on local voluntary organizations with special emphasis on citizen anti-crime groups. It also discusses evaluations of various kinds of programs. Fear of crime and its relationship to the crime rate, quality of life, demographics and citizen crime prevention organizations are also analyzed.;The primary data for this study has three parts: (1) a telephone survey of 500 residents living within the areas covered by six citizen crime patrols in New York City, (2) census data pertaining to demographic characteristics of the survey population and (3) New York City Police Department crime data.;Three major hypotheses regarding the effect of citizen crime patrols and the types of areas where they operate were examined. The first hypothesis was that citizen crime patrols do not have a major impact on local crime rates. However the data revealed lower crime rates for five out of six of the patrol areas compared to citywide rates. Since this was not a controlled experiment, the extent to which the citizen crime patrols were responsible for these lower crime rates is not clear. The second hypothesis was that the citizen crime patrols would reduce area residents' fear of crime. The data showed that many respondents felt safer due to the patrols but at the same time there was no correlation between perception of safety when out alone at night in one's neighborhood and the presence of the patrols. The third hypothesis was that increased homogeneity would create greater social control which in turn should help suppress crime. The data did not show this effect for the areas studied.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
