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Course Communities and Crime Criminology 6309.501 / Sociology 6309.501 Professor Dr. Karen L. Hayslett-McCall Term Fall 2007 Meetings Wednesday 5:30-8:15, Room Green 3.402 Professor’s Contact Information
Office Phone (972) 883-4767 Other Phone N/A Office Location GR 3.210 Email Address klh024000@utdallas.edu or Karen.Hayslett-McCall@utdallas.edu  Office Hours W 1:30-4pm, or by appointment (i.e., after class) Other Information All e-mail contact that is meant to come directly to me must be sent to my utdallas account (see above).
General Course Information
Pre-requisites, Co-requisites, & other restrictions:
 
This is a graduate course. Students should be enrolled in a graduate program or have appropriate permissions. Course Description:
 
The study of communities and crime is the topic that launched modern criminology, and it has once again become a very active area of research. In this course, we will take a quick look at the historical roots of research on communities and crime, and then we will go on to a more detailed examination of more current work in this area. We will devote most of our attention to community influences on offending, but we will also spend some time on community focused responses to crime, both within the justice system (formal social control) and by independent organizations and neighborhoods (informal social control). Learning Outcomes: 1.
 
Students will be able to describe and examine the role of communities in the level of crime represented within their boundaries and will understand the influences of  both formal and informal social control; including discussions of the role of  policy implications. 2.
 
Students will be able to describe and identify the important theoretical components of communities and crime. 3.
 
Students will be able to critically examine the relationship between communities and offending and between criminal victimization. Required Texts & Materials
 
I am still unsure if a required book will be necessary Suggested Texts, Readings, & Materials:
 
Students will be required to pull several academic research sources from the library during the course of the class for the projects. Information will be provided on the exact procedures and requirements during class.
 
Assignments & Academic Calendar
Orientation:
 
Topics and assignments have been inserted below. These are tentative -- all accurate dates, and any changes in dates, are announced in class and/or posted on the WebCT calendar.
 
Assignments are a little more based on how the material flows, thus accurate records of assignment deadlines are reflected on the calendar on WebCT.
Topic 1: The Social Disorganization to Communities and Crime
1.
 
Bursick and Grasmick (1993) Neighborhoods and Crime: The Dimensions of Effective Community Control (pp. 30-38) 2.
 
Sampson (1987). Communities and Crime. In Gottfredson and Hirschi (Eds). Positive Criminology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. (pp. 99-104) 3.
 
Burgess (1925) The growth of the City. In Park, Burgess, and McKenzie (Eds.) The City, pp 47-62 Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 4.
 
Thomas and Znaniecki 1958 (1927). The Polish Peasant in Europe and America.  New York: Dover (pp.1171-1181 and 1196-1221. 5.
 
Thrasher (1927) The Gang. Chicago. University of Chicago Press. Pp. 3-7, 20-35, and 179-193 6.
 
Shaw and McKay (1942). Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas17-22,43-57,63-68,164-171,177-183. 7.
 
Kornhauser (1978). Social Sources of Delinquency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pp. 23-32 and 51-83
Topic 2: Research on Structural Aspects of Social Disorganization
1.
 
Sampson (1985) Neighborhood and Crime: The Structural Determinants of Personal Victimization. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 22 7-40. 2.
 
Bursik (1986). Ecological Stability and the Dynamics of Delinquency. Communities and Crime, Vol. 8. Reiss and Tonry (Eds.) 3.
 
Bursik (1988). Social Disorganization and theory of crime and delinquency: Problems and prospects. Criminology 26:519-551 4.
 
Warner and Pierce (1993). Reexamination of social disorganization theory using calls to the police as a measure of crime. Criminology 31: 493-517 5.
 
Mills (1943) The Professional Ideology of Social Pathologists.” American Journal of Sociology 49: 165-180
Topic 3: Strain, Inequality, and Communities
1.
 
Blau (1977). Inequality and Heterogeneity: A Primitive Theory of Social Structure. New York: Free Press. Pp1-18 2.
 
Blau and Blau (1982). The cost of intequality: Metropolitan structure and violent crime. American Sociological Review 47: 114-129 3.
 
Land, McCall and Cohen (1990). Structural Covariates of homicide rates: Are there any invariances across time and space. American Journal of Sociology 95:922-963. 4.
 
Shihadex and Steffensmeier (1994). Economic inequality, family disruption, and urban black violence: Cities as units of stratification and social control. Social
 
Forces 73:729-751. 5.
 
Sampson (1987). Communities and crime. In Gottfredson and Hirschi (Eds.) Positive Criminology. Newbury Park, CA:sage. Pp. 91-94. 6.
 
Agnew (1999). A general strain theory of community differences in crime rates. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 36:123-155.
Topic 4: The Systemic Social Disorganization Model
1.
 
Bursik and Grasmick (1993). Neighborhoods and Crime: The Dimensions of Effective Community Control. New York. Lexington Books. Pp. 13-29 and 38-45. 2.
 
Sampson (1987). Communities and crime. In Gottfredson and Hirschi (Eds.). Positive Criminology. Newbury Park, CA. Sage. Pp. 104-114. 3.
 
Kasarda and Janowitz (1974). Community attachment in mass society. American Sociological Review. 39:328-339. 4.
 
Granovetter (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology. 78: 1360-1380. 5.
 
Hunter. (1985). Private, parochial, and public school orders: The problem of crime and incivility in urban communication. In Suttles and Zald (Eds.), The Challenge of Social Control: Citizenship and Institution Building in modern Society. Norwood, NJ Ablex Publishing. Pp. 230-242. 6.
 
Sampson and Groves. (1989). Community structure and crime: Testing social disorganization theory. American Journal of Sociology. 94:774-802.
Topic 5: Issues of Race and Extreme Deprivation
1.
 
Sampson and Wilson (1995). Toward a theory of race, crime, an urban inequality. In Hagan and Peterson (Eds.) Crime and Inequality. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 2.
 
Krivo and Peterson. (1996). Extremely disadvantaged neighborhoods and urban crime. Social Forces. 75:619-650. 3.
 
Peterson, Krivo, and Harris (2000). Disadvantage and Neighborhood Violent Crime: Do Local Institutions matter? Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. 37:31-63. 4.
 
Rankin and Quane. (2000). Neighborhood poverty and the social isolation of inner-city African American families. Social Forces: 79:139-164. 5.
 
Martinez, Ramiro, (1996). Latinos and lethal violence: The impact of poverty and inequality.” Social Problems: 43:131-146. 6.
 
McNulty and Holloway. (2000). Race, Crime, and Public Housing in Atlanta: Testing a conditional effect hypothesis. Social Forces: 79:707-729.
Topic 6: Cultural Deviance: Norms and Community Deviance
1.
 
Akers (1996) Is Differential Association/Social Learning Culture Deviance Theory. Criminology 34: 229-247 2.
 
Hirschi (1996) Theory without ideas: Reply to Akers Criminology 34:249-256. 3.
 
Cattarello (2000). Community Level Influences on Inividuals’ Social Bonds, Peer Associations, an Delinquency: A multi-level analysis. Justice Quarterly 17:33-??

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