Urban Politics, Crime Rates, And Police Strength (Criminal Justice)

Stucky argues, using insights from political resource theory, that the local political context (form of government, city council structure and partisanship of elections) affects the ability of citizens to make their concerns heard in local government and, consequently, their ability to organize against crime. Additionally, he argues that local political systems that are more susceptible to citizen pressure will have relatively more police. These hypotheses are tested on U.S. cities with 25,000 or more residents in 1991. Results suggest that the effect of social disorganization on crime rates depends on the local political system. Results also suggest that the relative size of police departments in 1991 varies by local political context. TABLE OF CONTENTS......Page 6 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES......Page 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 10 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION......Page 12 CHAPTER 2: EXTANT RESEARCH ON CRIME AND POLICE STRENGTH......Page 16 Explaining City Crime Rates......Page 17 Politics and Crime......Page 30 Extant Research on Police Strength......Page 33 Politics and Policing......Page 39 Summing Up......Page 42 CHAPTER 3: INSTITUTIONAL RESOURCES, CRIME, AND POLICE STRENGTH......Page 44 Political Resource Theory......Page 45 City Political Systems: The Legacy of Reform......Page 48 Institutional Resources and Crime......Page 61 Institutional Resources and Police Strength......Page 69 Summing Up......Page 73 CHAPTER 4: STUDY METHODOLOGY......Page 76 Data Sources......Page 77 Variables Used in the Analyses......Page 79 Statistical Models......Page 91 Descriptive Statistics......Page 94 Analysis of Residuals......Page 96 WLS Regression Results: Crime in 1991......Page 98 Institutional Resources and Crime in 1981......Page 106 Supplementary Analyses......Page 110 Interpreting the Current Results......Page 111 CHAPTER 6: URBAN POLITICS AND POLICE STRENGTH......Page 114 WLS Regression Results: Police Strength in 1991......Page 115 Comparing Police Employment in 1981 and 1991......Page 122 Supplementary Analyses......Page 123 Interpreting the Current Results......Page 125 Institutional Resources and Crime......Page 128 Institutional Resources and Police Strength......Page 132 Limitations and Directions for Future Research......Page 134 Conclusion......Page 138 REFERENCES......Page 140 APPENDICES......Page 170 H......Page 178 R......Page 179 W......Page 180 Extant research on crime and police strength Institutional resources, crime, and police strength Study methodology Urban politics and crime Urban politics and police strength City politics and criminal justice.