Book Description

This book argues that the level of social and physical capital in communities can influence the amount of crime. Communities are conceived as varying across positive, weak, or negative levels of social and physical capital. Negative social and physical capital produce higher levels of disorder and crime. Conversely, positive social and physical capital enables residents to lower social problems in communities. Weak social and physical capital allows more disorder because the community’s defenses against crime and disorder are not strong enough to combat these problems. The general perspectives include broken windows, defensible space, hot spots, collective efficacy, social disorganization, underclass gang communities, the post-industrialized communities and routine activities theory. The ameliorative programs include the weed and seed program, the moving to opportunity program, community policing, and empowerment zones.