Wooldrege And Thistlethwaite (2003): A Case Study

Wooldrege and Thistlethwaite (2003). This is an example of crime occurring in poor neighborhoods. This could be a reason to why police officers decide to patrol in these areas. Neighborhood structural characteristics resulting in concentrated social disadvantage not only make it difficult for residents to supervise each other’s property and youth, but they also negatively affect collective efficacy, or the willingness of residents to intervene in situations (including criminal acts) for the common good of the community. Garret and Libbey (1997) speculate that family violence is greater in more disadvantaged neighborhoods because community support is lacking due to residents’ isolation from the community in such areas (as cited in Wooldrege J. and Thistlethwaite A. 2003). Crutchfield (1989) found that the structural characteristics of neighborhoods – specifically those with high rates of unemployment and underemployment – also have high rates of violence, given that these neighborhoods consist of a large number of similarly young males and opportunities for violence and victimization are greater (as cited in Wooldrege J. and Thistlethwaite A. 2003). African Americans residing in
They found that not only are rates of violence in general higher across predominantly black neighborhoods in Hamilton County, but rates of intimate assault involving spouses and partners also tend to be higher in predominately black communities in this area. Wooldredge and Thistlewaite also talked about how African Americans might be inflated relative to whites as a consequence of police bias, the variation in these rates may still reflect variation in offending across