Citation

Farley JE. Am. J. Sociol. 1987; 93(3): 688-700.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.1086/228793

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Previous studies have reported a positive relationship between the degree of suburbanization of a metropolitan area and central-city crime rates. Two competing explanations of this relationship, one based on relative deprivation in cities as compared with suburbs and the other attributing the relationship to suburb-to-city movements of crime participants, have been offered. The present study, based on regression analysis of 1980 census data, finds a relative deprivation effect on two crimes in cities as compared with suburbs, but, even when relative deprivation is controlled, the suburbanization-crime relationship persists. The participant-movement explanation, on the other hand, is found to involve unrealistic assumptions about the movements of offenders. It is proposed that the unexplained part of the relationship between suburbanization and central-city crime is an arbitrary product of the effect of the city suburb boundary location on the denominator of the crime rate. It is demonstrated that such an effect can occur even in the absence of any movement of offenders between suburb and city.