Matching Items (7)
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- All Subjects: Neighborhoods
- Creators: Wallace, Danielle
- Creators: Pijawka, David
Description
Knowing that disorder is related to crime, it has become essential for criminologists to understand how and why certain individuals perceive disorder. Using data from the Perceptions of Neighborhood Disorder and Interpersonal Conflict Project, this study uses a fixed photograph of a neighborhood, to assess whether individuals "see" disorder cues. A final sample size of n=815 respondents were asked to indicate if they saw particular disorder cues in the photograph. The results show that certain personal characteristics do predict whether an individual sees disorder. Because of the experimental design, results are a product of the individual's personal characteristics, not of the respondent's neighborhood. These findings suggest that the perception of disorder is not as clear cut as once thought. Future research should explore what about these personal characteristics foster the perception of disorder when it is not present, as well as, how to fight disorder in neighborhoods when perception plays such a substantial role.
ContributorsScott, Christopher (Author) / Wallace, Danielle (Thesis advisor) / Katz, Charles (Committee member) / Ready, Justin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The increasing isolation and segregation of children in American cities and suburbs is of special significance. This has meant a loss of freedom for children to explore their neighborhood and city as they get older, their exclusion from varied contacts with diverse adults in a variety of settings, and their consequent inability to learn from personal experience and observation, so essential to social and emotional development. The purpose of this study is to measure the differences in child-friendliness between neighborhoods with different income levels by developing an indicator framework that can be used by planning departments and other local authorities based on available data. The research also focus on what other factor (besides income) influences child-friendliness in a city at the neighborhood level. If a relationship does exist, how big is the difference in terms of child-friendliness between low-income and high-income neighborhoods, and what indicators play the most important role in creating the difference? Neighborhoods in the city of Glendale, Arizona serve as case studies to aid in refining the assessment method, and show the potential for how cities can become more child-friendly. The neighborhoods were selected based on income, same size and different location.
ContributorsRakhimova, Nelya (Author) / Stein, Jay (Thesis advisor) / Pijawka, David (Committee member) / Crewe, Katherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Effectiveness and efficiency of the police have been contentious topics from the public perspective. Police departments have developed policies to help better their patrol officers' effectiveness on the streets in both quality and timeliness. Although there have been few recent studies about the response time of officers to calls for service, this is a subject that should not go overlooked. As an important aspect to the patrol officer's repertoire, response time can have effects on the community and its perception on the police. This study uses a multi-level modeling approach to examine the effects of incident and neighborhood factors on police response time within a medium size Southwest city. Police departments use a scale to determine the priority of a call for service, commonly referred to as the PRI. This index scale was found to have the most effect on the response times, while a few cyclical patterns were obtained of level 1 variables. Neighborhood characteristics showed significant effects, measuring structural disadvantage, however, caution should be used in generalizing these findings to other public jurisdictions.
ContributorsSullivan, Eamon (Author) / Ready, Justin (Thesis advisor) / Wallace, Danielle (Committee member) / Katz, Charles (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Individuals with high levels of neighborhood attachment provide a multitude of positive factors to neighborhoods. Research has demonstrated that increases in informal social controls, maintaining a well-kept area, and positive social ties are improved with higher levels of neighborhood attachment. Identifying the factors that lead to higher levels of neighborhood attachment has thus become an area in the literature that scholars have frequently studied. One aspect of neighborhood life that has been neglected in research is the role of police on neighborhood attachment. This study addresses the gap by exploring the role of police in influencing levels of neighborhood attachment. Data from the Seattle Neighborhood and Crime Survey are used to examine perceptions of police effectiveness on overall levels of neighborhood attachment, and the three different sub-concepts of neighborhood attachment. Results demonstrated that perceptions of police effectiveness had a positive relationship on all forms of neighborhood attachment. Suggestions for the roles of police in developing neighborhood attachment will be discussed, as well as the theoretical applications for future testing of neighborhood attachment. This study demonstrates the influence of police on daily neighborhood life.
ContributorsWalker, Jason, M.S (Author) / Wallace, Danielle (Thesis advisor) / Wang, Xia (Committee member) / Hepburn, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Although much has been done to examine the relationship between unemployment and crime, little consideration has been given to the impact neighborhood-level factors such as informal social control may have on the strength of unemployment as a predictor of crime. The present study seeks to fill this gap by assessing whether the declining crime rates over a period of surging unemployment under the financial crisis are due to unchanged levels of informal social control. To examine these relationships, the present study utilizes data from Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), calls for service to the police, and the United States Census and American Community Survey. These data are longitudinal in nature covering the period 2007-2011 and are all related to Glendale, Arizona. The results indicate that the financial crisis predicts lower rates of property crimes as well as lower rates of calls for service relative to UCR crimes. Additionally, the present study finds that unemployment is a significant predictor of increases in UCR property crime, UCR violent crime, and engagement in each of my measures of informal social control.
ContributorsHoyle, Mary Elizabeth (Author) / Wallace, Danielle (Thesis advisor) / Chamberlain, Alyssa (Committee member) / Reisig, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
As urban areas continue to grow with an increasing amount of population growth and influx, prudent planning for developed and developing cities has never been as important as it is today. Currently, about 54% of the world's population lives in urban areas while that number is expected to increase to 66% by 2050 (United Nations 2014). This being said, planners, politicians, and policymakers among others need to be able to anticipate the ideal urban infrastructure needed with the most effective layout and design for creating and maintaining a high quality of life. The purpose of this research is to identify a potential link between neighborhood-scale urban form criteria that are believed to improve quality of life and the perceived quality of life of people who live in neighborhoods that display these specific urban form criteria. This study looked at three neighborhoods that each exhibited differences in neighborhood urban form such as: community-oriented design, high walkability, and close proximity to nature. A non-scientific preliminary survey was conducted in each of these three neighborhoods to identify potential differences in urban form preference targeting different demographics. The scope of this study is a preliminary assessment to gain an idea of which neighborhood-scale urban form factors, if any, are important for improving quality of life from the point of view of the resident. These results may lead to future study that could determine the relationship between availability of infrastructure and residential preference for certain infrastructure. This could also lead to a guide for planners on important criteria to consider for future neighborhood development in an urban setting as well as areas to focus on in the urban retrofitting process.
ContributorsZipperer, Michael James (Author) / Pijawka, David (Thesis director) / Talen, Emily (Committee member) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Discretion is central to policing. The way officers use their discretion is influenced by situational, officer, and neighborhood-level factors. Concerns that discretion could be used differentially across neighborhoods have resulted in calls for increased police transparency and accountability. Body-worn cameras (BWCs) have been promoted to further these goals through increasing oversight of police-citizen encounters. The implication is that BWCs will increase officer self-awareness and result in more equitable outcomes. Prior researchers have largely evaluated the direct impact of BWCs. Researchers have yet to examine the potential for BWCs to moderate the influence of neighborhood context in individual incidents.
To address this gap, I use Phoenix Police Department data collected as part of a three-year randomized-controlled trial of BWCs to examine variation in police discretion. These data include over 1.5 million police-citizen contacts nested within 826 officers and 388 neighborhoods. I examine two research questions. First, how do proactivity, arrests, and use of force vary depending on situational, officer, and neighborhood contexts? This provides a baseline for my next research question. Second, examining the same contexts and outcomes, do BWCs moderate the influence of neighborhood factors on police behavior? As such, I examine the untested, though heavily promoted, argument that BWCs will reduce the influence of extralegal factors on officer behavior.
Using cross-classified logistic regression models, I found that situational, officer, and neighborhood factors all influenced proactivity, arrest, and use of force. BWCs were associated with a lower likelihood of proactivity, but an increased likelihood of arrest and use of force. Officers were more proactive and were more likely to conduct arrests in immigrant and Hispanic neighborhoods. The moderating effects suggest that officers were even more likely to proactively initiate contacts and conduct arrests in immigrant and Hispanic neighborhoods when BWCs were activated. However, after BWCs were deployed, use of force was significantly less likely to occur in black neighborhoods. Given that high-profile police use of force incidents involving black suspects are often cited as a major impetus for the adoption of BWCs in American police agencies, this finding is a key contribution to the literature.
To address this gap, I use Phoenix Police Department data collected as part of a three-year randomized-controlled trial of BWCs to examine variation in police discretion. These data include over 1.5 million police-citizen contacts nested within 826 officers and 388 neighborhoods. I examine two research questions. First, how do proactivity, arrests, and use of force vary depending on situational, officer, and neighborhood contexts? This provides a baseline for my next research question. Second, examining the same contexts and outcomes, do BWCs moderate the influence of neighborhood factors on police behavior? As such, I examine the untested, though heavily promoted, argument that BWCs will reduce the influence of extralegal factors on officer behavior.
Using cross-classified logistic regression models, I found that situational, officer, and neighborhood factors all influenced proactivity, arrest, and use of force. BWCs were associated with a lower likelihood of proactivity, but an increased likelihood of arrest and use of force. Officers were more proactive and were more likely to conduct arrests in immigrant and Hispanic neighborhoods. The moderating effects suggest that officers were even more likely to proactively initiate contacts and conduct arrests in immigrant and Hispanic neighborhoods when BWCs were activated. However, after BWCs were deployed, use of force was significantly less likely to occur in black neighborhoods. Given that high-profile police use of force incidents involving black suspects are often cited as a major impetus for the adoption of BWCs in American police agencies, this finding is a key contribution to the literature.
ContributorsHuff, Jessica (Author) / Katz, Charles M. (Thesis advisor) / Wallace, Danielle (Committee member) / Maguire, Edward R. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020