JUS 110 WEEK 5

Crime Rates and Social Conflict
JUS-110
Suppose the crime rate has risen significantly in a community near where you live. There has been a rapid rise in residential burglaries, a rise in auto theft, a rise in assault, and a dramatic increase in armed robbery.
Compose an essay (500-750 words) describing how someone would explain this crime increase if writing from a social conflict paradigm.
Use the GCU Library to locate 3-5 peer-reviewed sources to support your content.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the GCU Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a grading rubric. Instructors will be using the rubric to grade the assignment; therefore, students should review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment.
You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Refer to the directions in the Student Success Center. Only Word documents can be submitted to Turnitin.















A SOCIO-STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF CRIME IN THE CITY OF TSHWANE, SOUTH AFRICA.

Authors:
Breetzke, Gregory D.1, [email protected]
Source:
South African Journal of Science; Nov/Dec2010, Vol. 106 Issue 11/12, p41-47, 7p, 3 Charts
Document Type:
Article
Subjects:
City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality (South Africa); South Africa; Social disorganization; Regression analysis; Social conflict; Apartheid -- South Africa
Author Supplied Keywords:
apartheid
contact crime
deprivation
social disorganisation
Tshwane
Abstract:
High and rising levels of crime plague post-apartheid South Africa. A common explanation for these high crime rates relates the country's unique socio-political past to a system of ineffective social control mechanisms that suggest high levels of social disorganisation within certain communities. Other explanations emphasise the presence of disaffected youths and deprivation, as well as the rapid immigration of people from neighbouring African countries into South Africa. I examined a number of these socio-structural explanations of crime on contact crime rates in the city of Tshwane, South Africa. The findings are largely consistent with the social disorganisation theory, as well as with what has previously been suggested in local literature. In order to supplement these preliminary findings, the effects of the same socio-structural explanations on contact crime rates were determined for predominantly Black, White, and 'Mixed' (containing a mix of both Black and White residents) suburbs using spatial regression models. Evidence from these analyses suggests that the effects of the various socio-structural explanations do not appear to traverse racial lines. Rather, the findings suggest non-uniformity in terms of the extent to which the various socio-structural factors impact contact crime rates based on race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]








How does childhood economic disadvantage lead to crime? 
Authors: Fergusson, David1 [email protected] Swain-Campbell, Nicola1 Horwood, John1
Source: Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry. Jul2004, Vol. 45 Issue 5,      p956-966. 11p. 4 Charts. 
Document Type:  Article
Subject Terms:
*CRIMINOLOGY
*CRIME
*SOCIAL problems
*SOCIAL conflict
*SOCIAL control
*SOCIAL norms
Abstract:
This study sought to examine the associations between indices of socio-economic deprivation in childhood and later involvement in crime. Data were gathered as part of the Christchurch Health and Development Study. In this project a cohort of 1,265 children born in Christchurch in 1977 have been studied from birth to age 21 years. The measures collected included: self-reported property and violent crime (15-16, 17-18, and 20-21 years); officially recorded convictions for property/violent crime; measures of childhood socio-economic status; and a series of intervening factors, including parenting (use of physical punishment, maternal care, family change, parental attachment, parental offending), individual (conduct and attention problems), school (truancy, suspensions, examination performance, scholastic ability), and peer factors (affiliations with deviant and substance using peers). The results suggest that childhood socio-economic disadvantage was associated with clear increases in rates of both self-reported crime and officially recorded convictions. However, using block recursive negative binomial regression models a range of parental, individual, school, and peer factors were found to intervene between socio-economic disadvantage and crime. Following introduction of these measures into the models, the association between socio-economic disadvantage and crime became both statistically and practically non-significant. This study suggests that the higher rates of crime found amongst young people from socio-economically disadvantaged families reflect a life course process in which adverse family, individual, school, and peer factors combine to increase individual susceptibility to crime. 
What Mediates the Macro-Level Effects of Economic and Social Stress on Crime? 
Authors:
Weatherburn, Don1 [email protected]
Lind, Bronwyn1
Source:
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology (Australian Academic Press). Dec2006, Vol. 39 Issue 3, p384-397. 14p. 4 Diagrams. 
Document Type:
Article
Subject Terms:
*SOCIAL control
*SOCIAL disorganization
*SOCIAL history
*COMMUNITY change
*SOCIAL order
*SOCIAL conflict
Abstract:
Social disorganisation theorists maintain that structural variables, such as poverty, ethnic heterogeneity and geographic mobility, exert their effects on crime by reducing the level of informal social control or collective efficacy in a neighbourhood. There is a large body of individual level evidence, however, which suggests that structural variables exert their effects on offending by disrupting the parenting process (e.g., by reducing the level of parental supervision).The purpose of this article is to report the results of an aggregate-level study designed to investigate whether the aggregate-level effects of poverty, ethnic heterogeneity and geographic mobility on rates of juvenile participation in crime are produced by raising the level of child neglect in a neighbourhood. The results support this hypothesis. Possible limitations of the study are discussed and suggestions for more definitive research are put forward.







How does childhood economic disadvantage lead to crime? 
Authors:
Fergusson, David1 [email protected]
Swain-Campbell, Nicola1
Horwood, John1
Source:
Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry. Jul2004, Vol. 45 Issue 5, p956-966. 11p. 4 Charts. 
Document Type:
Article
Subject Terms:
*CRIMINOLOGY
*CRIME
*SOCIAL problems
*SOCIAL conflict
*SOCIAL control
*SOCIAL norms
Author-Supplied Keywords:
crime
longitudinal study
Socio-economic factors
Abstract:
This study sought to examine the associations between indices of socio-economic deprivation in childhood and later involvement in crime. Data were gathered as part of the Christchurch Health and Development Study. In this project a cohort of 1,265 children born in Christchurch in 1977 have been studied from birth to age 21 years. The measures collected included: self-reported property and violent crime (15-16, 17-18, and 20-21 years); officially recorded convictions for property/violent crime; measures of childhood socio-economic status; and a series of intervening factors, including parenting (use of physical punishment, maternal care, family change, parental attachment, parental offending), individual (conduct and attention problems), school (truancy, suspensions, examination performance, scholastic ability), and peer factors (affiliations with deviant and substance using peers). The results suggest that childhood socio-economic disadvantage was associated with clear increases in rates of both self-reported crime and officially recorded convictions. However, using block recursive negative binomial regression models a range of parental, individual, school, and peer factors were found to intervene between socio-economic disadvantage and crime. Following introduction of these measures into the models, the association between socio-economic disadvantage and crime became both statistically and practically non-significant. This study suggests that the higher rates of crime found amongst young people from socio-economically disadvantaged families reflect a life course process in which adverse family, individual, school, and peer factors combine to increase individual susceptibility to crime.