Summary
In this book, the author presents a structural and theoretical analysis of the various factors that affect the crime decline, looking particularly at the past three decades and the shifts that have taken place, and offers original insight into which trends have declined and why. Taking into account such indicators as employment, labour market opportunities, skill levels, housing, changes in racial composition, family structure, and drug trafficking, she provides statistics that illustrate how these factors do or do not affect urban violence, and carefully considers these factors in relation to various crime trends, such as rates involving blacks, whites, but also trends among black males, white females, as well as others. Throughout the book she discusses popular structural theories of crime and their limitations, in the end concentrating on today's issues and important contemporary policy to be considered.
Contents
1. Introduction. -- 2. The difference race and gender makes: a detailed look at violent crime and the crime drop. -- 3. Structural perspectives on crime and their critics. -- 4. Racial stratification and the local urban economy. -- 5. Race, urban inequality, and the changing nature of violence: an illustration of theoretical integration. -- 6. Conclusion.