Jargowsky And Park's Routine Activities Theory

Jargowsky and Park (2009) looked at how suburbanization (and by proxy housing abandonment) was related to crime. It was found that crime and housing abandonment had a cyclical effect on each other. Many middle-class and upper class people chose to move to the suburbs to get away from crime even as crime increased because of the exodus of people (Jargowsky & Park, 2009). Additionally, Jargowsky and Park (2009) also found that the movement of those classes isolates the lower class and lowers the overall financial capacity of the city to resolve social and economic problems which leads to crime. One theory that they drew upon was the Routine Activities Theory which has need of a suitable target, a motivated offender, and guardians. In the case of housing abandonment there are all three. Since the middle and upper classes left the city there are fewer suitable targets but to make up for it there are more than enough motivated offenders and because of the migration of middle class families there is also a reduction in the informal neighborhood guardianship (Jargowsky & Park, 2009).
Basch (2011) found that violent and aggressive behavior is highly prevalent and disproportionate among school-aged minority youth and has a negative impact on academic achievement. In addition, research has shown that collective exposure to both aggression and violence from childhood through adolescence to adulthood has adverse effects on youth and is especially harmful on urban minority youth (Basch, 2011). Schwartz and Gorman (2003), as cited in Basch (2011), found that exposure to community violence (i.e. urban crime) influenced the likelihood of academic failure along two possible pathways; these pathways include symptoms of depression (low energy and motivation, poor concentration, etc.) and disruptive behaviors (impulsiveness, aggression, off-task behavior,