DOES THE REGION OF WHERE SOMEONE LIVES HAVE AN

EFFECT ON WHAT CRIME THEY COMMIT?

By: Alyssa LefebvreSoc 240- Social WelfareFinal Presentation

LITERATURE REVIEW

• A study was done and it was found that urbanity was a main factor of property crime and urbanity and population density are factors of violent crimes. Also unemployment plays a part in rural property crime. One thing that was similar in all the research was that urban areas received most of the attention and it was harder to obtain data from non-urban areas. It was found that the South region was unrelated to all crimes but had a strong relation to the homicide rates and the percentage of blacks was the strongest factor. (Kposowa)

• In the 25 years since the birth of Youth & Policy, recorded youth and adult crime rates in England and Wales at first rose sharply, but then in 1992 it declined. Between 1992 and 2002 the number of 10-17 year olds that were convicted, cautioned, reprimanded or warned for different offenses, also fell by over a quarter. Throughout the study it was stated that the most street and gang crime would happen within Britain’s poorest neighborhoods. (Pitts)

• According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) (2006), 52% of sentenced state prison inmates committed violent offenses and 21% are serving time for property crimes. This study collects data within the USA and found that seven Southern States have the lowest prison sentences for Fringe Laws, while some Northwestern states seem to be more lenient on the Fringe Laws. (Clement)

LITERATURE REVIEW CONTINUED

• One study gathered data from 13 rural counties within east-central Georgia. The variables that had a relation to property and violent crimes were unemployment, poverty, race, and family dependence on government assistance. It was concluded that these variables listed were factors that led to more rural property crimes which would be considered larceny, theft, arson, burglary, and auto theft rather than violent crimes which were homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. (Arthur)

• When dealing with drug crimes, it was found that in the United States over half of federal inmates are in prison due to drug charge. Also since the 1970s in Canada, drug offenses have been responsible for more than a third of growth in the imprisoned population. Since 1980 these incarceration rates have only increased. Lastly, one more finding was that within the United States drug arrests have more than tripled within the last 25 years. (Grant)

WORKS CITED

• Arthur, J. A. (1991). SOCIOECONOMIC PREDICTORS OF CRIME IN RURAL GEORGIA. Criminal Justice Review (Georgia State University), 16(1), 29-41.

• Clement, K., & Barbrey, J. (2008). Criminal Laws on the Fringe: An Analysis of Legislated Punishments for Morality Crimes in the 50 States. Critical Criminology, 16(2), 105-121. doi:10.1007/s10612-008-9050-z

• Grant, J. (2009). A Profile of Substance Abuse, Gender, Crime, and Drug Policy in the United States and Canada. Journal Of Offender Rehabilitation, 48(8), 654-668. doi:10.1080/10509670903287667

• Kposowa, A. J., Breault, K. D., & Harrison, B. M. (1995). Reassessing the structural covariates of violent and property crimes in the USA: A county level analysis. British Journal Of Sociology, 46(1), 79-105.

• Pitts, J. (2008). The Changing Shape of Youth Crime. Youth & Policy, (100), 165-176.

DATA SOURCE USED

• I used the data on Education and Crime • The data was for self-reported crime

regressions in a 1980 survey• This included all black and white males from

the cross-section sample, with a poor white oversample and black oversample

DATA ANALYSIS

First…• Highlight the data• Copy it• Pasted it on a new excel sheet• Then, I deleted all of the unnecessary variables that I didn’t need to answer

my question, by highlighting the appropriate columns, right click, then delete

• I was then left with the following variables: vioclr, drugcr, propcr, and reg*From the Codebook…violcr dummy variable = 1 if respondent committed a serious violent crime in past year (positive

number of times used force to obtain things or attacked someone with the idea of seriously hurting or killing them)drugcr dummy variable = 1 if respondent reported selling drugs in past yearpropcr dummy variable = 1 if respondent reported committing a serious property crime in past year (positive number of times shoplifting or stealing something worth $50 or more from someone/somewhere other than a store)

reg* dummy variable = 1 if living in region (s = South, ne = Northeast, nc = North Central, w = West)

Here are the narrowed down variables that are needed to receive the answer

DATA ANALYSIS CONTINUED

Now for the Pivot Tables…• Highlight all the data from columns A-I• Go to Insert, Pivot Table• Drag the variables to the correct place: Region to Row Label, and the Crime

to the Column Label • Right click on the data in the table, select value field settings, then change

from count to % of Row Total• Repeat steps for all 12 pivot tables

To Make a Bar Graph…• From the pivot table, I highlighted and copied the percentages of the

people who did commit a crime within the region and pasted it next to the pivot table

• Then I clicked on those percentages after doing it for all of the four regions• Lastly, select insert bar graph, and label it appropriately • Repeat steps for all 3 charts

DATA ANALYSIS CONTINUED

Next… Violent Crime Pivot

Tables

Drug Crime Pivot Tables

Property Crime Pivot Tables

DATA ANALYSIS CONTINUED

FINDINGS

Based on Violent Crimes Committed:

Based on Drug Crimes Committed:

Based on Property Crimes Committed:

In North East Region 11.04%In North Central Region 10.25%In South Region 9.14%In West Region 9.62%

In North East Region 2.62%In North Central Region 3.49%In South Region 2.80%In West Region 3.56%

In North East Region 17.84%In North Central Region 16.37%In South Region 13.74%In West Region 22.51%

The North East Region has highest %

The West Region has highest %

The West Region has highest %