1. These issues have been identified and discussed in recent reviews of ecological research. See for example Bursik (1984), Sampson (1983a), Dunn (1980), and Baldwin (1979) for reviews of neighborhood-level research
2. and Byrne (1983), Brantingham and Brantingham (1981), and Harries (1980) for reviews of city-level research on crime.
3. The history of the social ecology of crime can be traced back further than Shaw and McKay. Pioneering ecological efforts by the 19th century French sociologists Quetelet and Guerry constituted some of the first work in “scientific criminology” according to Vold (1958, p. 164). Other Europeans, such as Rawson and Mayhew, also figured prominently in development of the ecological perspective. For an interesting review of the origins and development of English ecology and its relationship to American criminology, see Morris (1957).
4. Excellent reviews of the Shaw and McKay tradition have been provided by Pfohl (1985), Bursik (1984), and Finestone (1976). The critique of early ecological research by Baldwin and Bottoms (1976) is also informative.
5. A number of researchers have demonstrated a positive relationship between poverty and crime but yielded inconsistent patterns regarding partial effects or failed to perform multivariate analysis. See Harries (1980) or Baldwin (1979) for a complete review.