Dissertation Research: Institutional Politics and Crime Control in Cities

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SES 0002291PI: Karen Heimer, Thomas D StuckyThis project develops and tests a political resource theory of how city policies and practices affect crime rates. Political resource theories focus on how welfare policies result from various actors pursuing their interests, based on the resources available to them. By identifying actors and resources in cities, this study develops a theory of how city politics affects criminal opportunity and social disorganization, primarily through welfare programs and policing. The theory is applied to cities over 25,000 for the years 1981-96. It uses pooled cross-sectional time-series analyses to test hypotheses regarding both crime and poverty control efforts, as well as their effects on social disorganization, criminal opportunity and crime rates.