The Conditioning Effects Of Neighborhood Ecology On Burglary Victimization

Abstract

The systemic theory of social disorganization maintains that opportunities for victimization are conditioned by neighborhood social order. Systemic social control emanates from the strengths of a neighborhood’s private, public, and parochial social orders. Using neighborhood-level data from eight Chicago neighborhoods, this study tested a theoretically derived hypothesis that burglary victimization would vary across neighborhoods with different social orders. Neighborhoods were classified into three groups according to ecological measures of social orders and then analyzed for different levels of residential burglary risk. The results mainly supported the framework, although certain findings suggested some refinements to the model were in order. These and other implications are discussed.