URBANIZATION AND CRIMINAL VIOLENCE IN THE 19TH CENTURY - MASSACHUSETTS AS A TEST CASE (FROM VIOLENCE IN AMERICA BY HUGH D. GRAHAM & TED R. GURR - SEE NCJ-000763)

• NCJ Number: 5534
• Author(s): R LANE
• Date Published: 1969
• Length: 12 pages
• Corporate Author: National Commission on the Causes & Prevention of Violence
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: CHPT 12, P 359-370

Annotation

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT OVER A LONG TERM URBANIZATION HAS HAD A SETTLING, LITERALLY A CIVILIZING, EFFECT ON THE POPULATION INVOLVED.

Abstract

FROM A STUDY OF CRIME STATISTICS THE AUTHOR CONCLUDED THAT SERIOUS CRIME IN METROPOLITAN BOSTON HAS DECLINED SHARPLY BETWEEN THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND THE MIDDLE OF THE TWENTIETH. ALL EVIDENCE POINTS TO THE LONG-TERM DROP IN CRIMINAL ACTIVITY AS NORMATIVE, AND ASSOCIATED WITH URBANIZATION. BUT THE PROCESS IS NOT COMPLETE WITHOUT THE ACCOMPANIMENT OF RAPID INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AS WELL. IT WAS THIS WHICH PROVIDED THE MEANS OF ABSORBING MIGRANTS, OF FITTING THEM INTO A SYSTEM WHICH SOCIALIZED THEM INTO MORE COOPERATIVE HABITS OF LIFE. IT WAS ALSO FOUND THAT A DROP IN THE CRIME RATE IS ACCOMPANIED BY A HEIGHTENED SENSITIVITY TO DISORDER, SO THAT THE DEGREE OF PUBLIC CONCERN CANNOT BE USED AS AN ACCURATE INDEX TO THE DEGREE OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT)