Criminology & Criminal Justice

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    Race, Disadvantage, and the Probability of Arrest: A Multi-Level Study of Baltimore Neighborhoods (2016-2018)
    (2024) Placzkowski, Madisen; Velez, Maria; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This study examines the relationship among neighborhood racial composition, concentrated disadvantage, and the probability of an arrest following a Part 1 crime report. Racial threat theory predicts that as the proportion of Black residents increases over time (dynamic proxy for racial threat), the use of formal social control will increase, while the benign neglect hypothesis predicts that formal social control will diminish in areas with relatively higher proportions of Black residents (static proxy for racial threat). I test racial threat theory and the benign neglect hypothesis for both citizen-initiated and officer-initiated Part 1 crime reports, using Baltimore Police Department crime reports and arrest data, as well as block group characteristics from the 2011-2015 American Community Survey. Through multi-level modeling and including both static and dynamic measures of racial threat, I find that proportion Black is negatively associated with the probability of arrest; concentrated disadvantage has no effect. This finding supports the benign neglect hypothesis and is robust to alternative model specifications, including controlling for victim gender and race. Implications for policy and theories in the conflict tradition are discussed.
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    Examining Neighborhood Income Differences and Prosecutorial Charge Reductions
    (2018) Hernandez, Raquel Aida; Johnson, Brian D; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Recent studies find the socioeconomic status (SES) of a defendant’s home neighborhood acts as an extralegal factor in sentencing. However, little is known about how movement between low-SES and high-SES neighborhoods to commit crimes can shape the exercise of prosecutorial discretion. The social class of both a defendant’s home neighborhood and victimized neighborhood may be relevant in prosecutorial decision-making. This study examines how the SES of home and victimized neighborhoods influences the likelihood of a defendant receiving a charge reduction. Data from the New York County District Attorney’s Office provide detailed information on prosecution and sentencing for a large sample of criminal offenders, many of whom travel to commit crimes in neighborhoods other than their own. Results indicate low to high moving offenders were less likely to receive a charge reduction. Findings are discussed as they relate to theories of prosecutorial decision-making and perspectives on social inequality in punishment.
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    Local Economic Investment and Crime: Neighborhood Change in Washington, DC
    (2009) Matsuda, Mauri; Piquero, Alex R; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this analysis is to shed light on the relationship between large-scale economic investment and crime in Washington, DC neighborhood clusters (N=39) from 2001 to 2007. Using panel data and a two-way fixed effects analytic strategy, results indicate that investment in large scale economic development projects (in millions of dollars) and crime rates (per 1,000) are inversely related controlling for disadvantage and time effects. Further analyses indicate that the relationship is dependent on a number of investment related factors, including major use of investment project (e.g. industrial, retail), financing source (public versus private), construction type (new versus renovation), as well as outcome variable (i.e. violent versus property crime). Residential investment has the strongest and most consistent relationship with both violent and property crime suggesting that the changes which accompany residential investment may be responsible for reduced crime. Theoretical mechanisms and future research directions are discussed.