Citation

Moore MD, Sween M. J. Juv. Justice 2015; 4(1): 47-63.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, In Public Domain (U.S. Department of Justice OJJDP), Publisher CSR)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

Criminological theories are often developed based on studies of urban areas. The current analysis examines the applicability of social disorganization theory to youth crime in rural areas using Osgood and Chambers' (2000) analysis. The current analysis used negative binomial regression models to test social disorganization theory based on juvenile arrest rates in 2,011 nonmetropolitan counties within 48 states in the United States. The findings indicate that social disorganization theory can be applied to understand youth crime in rural areas: residential mobility, ethnic heterogeneity, family disruption, poverty, and population density predicted higher levels of crime. Although the population at risk--those between the ages of 15 and 24--was significant, we found age was not associated with crime in rural areas, which is the opposite finding of other social disorganization theorists. The unemployment rate of the counties had no effect on crime in our study. The findings of the current study match many of the findings of Osgood and Chambers' (2000) original analysis on social disorganization theory and rural crime, indicating that many of the components of social disorganization theory can be applied to understanding youth crime in rural areas.

Keywords: social disorganization theory; rural crime; juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice

Language: en