Research Presentation

                                                                    IQ & Crime

Much research has been conducted attempting to determine the link between IQ or intelligence quotient and its possible link to crime rates among the general population. The research question I found most interesting was, “What are the possible links between IQ and Crime rates?” If IQ does in fact affect the crime rates, how then do individuals (or parents, government leaders, teachers, etc.) go about boosting the IQ rates of individuals in an attempt to help them resist crime? Is IQ even alterable past the very early developmental stages in the fetus, or is it merely chance; a mixture of genetic conditioning with random variability? Attempting to determine the links between IQ and the correlations it may have on crime statistics may be one way biologists can attempt to link with those in the field of criminology in an attempt to find common ground.

What studies have been done to show that IQ and crime may be linked?

• ·         A study done by Hirschi and Hindelang in 1977 conclude that IQ “was a powerful individual-level predictor of criminal behavior.”

• ·         A study in 1988 done by Kandel revealed that high-risk Danish males with high IQ were “protected” from criminal involvement.

• ·         Herrnstein and Murray in 1994 reported that white males in a correctional facility had an average IQ roughly 7 points lower than the population average.

• ·         McGloin and Pratt in 2003 found that individuals with lower IQ levels tended to have longer criminal careers, combined with a higher chance of beginning their deviance at a young age. (Researchers Piquero and White, also 2003, reported similar findings).

• ·         Beaver and Wright (2011) reported that county-level IQ was strongly correlated with county-level crime rates.

• ·         Criminal offenders score approximately 8 points lower, on average, on IQ tests when compared to the general population.

• ·         Nations with higher average IQs also exhibit lower rates of violent crime.

• ·         Inmates in another study received an average of 10 points below the national average, with a standard deviation of around 13 points compared to 15 for the general population, on an IQ test.

With many different studies showing the strong correlation that exists between IQ rates and crime rates at any level, what are things that may be done to potentially raise the IQ of a child or adolescent?

• ·         Socioeconomic status, used to measure the quality of the environment in which children are born and raised, could be indicate of a nonlinear relationship between rearing environment and intelligence.

• ·         A healthy diet including fruit, vegetables, and fish was positively associated with IQ at 8 years of age. (Although the change in individual IQ scores was small, the effect on large populations of children could have greater significance).

• ·         It is possible that IQ is related to some variable that actually causes antisocial behavior.

• ·         Children whose mother’s IQ or quality of their home environment was low had poorer cognitive function when compared to those whose mother’s IQ or home environment quality was higher.

• ·         Studies show that the quality of the home environment has maximal impact in early childhood, while the mother’s IQ had maximal impact in later childhood.

• ·         A study done to show the effect of music lessons and IQ correlation among 6- to 11-year-olds showed positive correlation. These results indicate that formal exposure to music in childhood is associated positively with IQ and with academic performance and that such associations are small but general and long lasting.

• ·         A study in 1929 reported children ages 7-13 who had been breasted had better cognitive performance scores than children who had been artificially fed. It was also reported that at 7-8 years old, preterm infants of mothers who expressed breast milk for their infants had an average of 8.3 point IQ advantage over infants not provided breast milk.

• ·         An increase in the duration of breastfeeding was associated with increases in both verbal and performance IQ. Children who were breastfed for 8 months or longer had mean verbal IQ scores that were 10.2 points higher and performance scores that were 6.2 points higher, than the mean scores for children who did not receive breast milk. After control for confounding factors, there still remained a significant association between duration of receipt of breast milk and verbal IQ.

What is it that may be the cause between lower IQ scores and higher crime rates?

• ·         Hare in 1984 reasoned that a delinquent life-style (i.e. drug abuse, violence, head injuries) results in lower intellectual functioning, although previous studies indicated that lower delinquent IQ scores were there well before the deviant acts were committed.

• ·         Another explanation in the same study suggests that delinquents score lower on IQ tests simply because they are not interested in doing well. This explanation assumes that delinquents are also personally oppositional or that test-taking is not of value to them.

• ·         Wilson and Herrnstein in 1985 found that at the individual level, there may be a distinction in IQ and the type of crime. Those offenders with lower IQs are more often violent offenders relative rather than those committing property offenses.

• ·         One of the more reliable theories is that IQ leads to delinquency through school failure (Hirschi, 1969). He reasoned that those boys who experience failure in school are more likely to become deviants than those who experience success in school.

• ·         Delinquents measured are approximately 8 IQ points lower than nondelinquents, on average.

• ·         A study done on arrests rates linking IQ, race, and socioeconomic status showed that lower verbal intelligence predicted a greater likelihood of arrest. Also as part of this study was numerous African countries, attempting to draw a link between IQ, race, socioeconomic status, and crime, and found that the crime/IQ relation held but the crime/skin color relation did not.

Correlations that link crime and IQ seem to be present even when research is conducted at many different levels. The problem with correlation crime and IQ may be that those areas with high crime rates, such as the inner cities, may also be those where the education tends to be the poorest. While there are definitely ways that the IQ of children may be boosted, it is often up to the parent to do so, leading to the issue of a lack of parents who may not be fully invested in their children’s upbringing. Although most studies seem to show that most of the intelligence and cognitive development seems to form in early childhood, there may still be opportunities for schools to attempt to fight deviance through education and cognitive reasoning. Through education, schools will not only inform children properly of the effect that the decision to commit a crime may have on their futures, but may also help with the reasoning that will allow them to resist criminal situations later on in life.

References:

Bartels J., Joseph J. Ryan. “Correlations between estimates of state IQ and FBI crime statistics.” Personality and Individual Differences 48.5 (2010): 579-83. Science Direct. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

Beaver, K John Paul Wright. “The association between county-level IQ and county-level crime rates.” Intelligence 39:1 (2011): 22-6. Science Direct. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

Diamond, B. “Individual and group IQ predict inmate violence.” Intelligence 40.2 (2012): 115-22, Web. 2 Dec. 2013

Fagan, J. Cynthia R Holland. “Equal opportunity and racial differences in IQ.” Intelligence 30.4, (2002): 361-87, Science Direct. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

Lynam, Donald, Terrie Moffitt, and Magda Stouthamer-Loeber. "Explaining The Relation Between IQ And Delinquency: Class, Race, Test Motivation, School Failure, Or Self-Control?." Journal Of Abnormal Psychology 102.2 (1993): 187-196. PsycARTICLES. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

Moffitt, Terrie E., et al. "Socioeconomic Status, IQ, And Delinquency." Journal Of Abnormal Psychology 90.2 (1981): 152-6. PsycARTICLES. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

Percival, Jennifer. "Push Your IQ Up the Scale." Nursing Standard 17.33 (2003): 22-3. ProQuest. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

Rushton, J.P., Donald I. Templer. “National differences in intelligence, crime, income, and skin color.” Intelligence 37.4 (2009): 341-346. Science Direct. Web. 2 Dec. 2013

Schellenberg, E. Glenn. "Long-Term Positive Associations Between Music Lessons And IQ." Journal Of Educational Psychology 98.2 (2006): 457-468. PsycARTICLES. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

Stein, Martin T. "Are Diet and IQ Linked in Children?" Journal Watch. Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (2011)ProQuest. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

Templer, D, J. Philippe Rushton. “IQ, skin color, crime, HIV/AIDS, and income in 50 U.S. states.” Intelligence 39.6 (2011): 437-42. Science Direct. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

Thompson, June. "New Study Links Breastfeeding to Higher IQ." Community Practitioner 74.3 (2001): 116. ProQuest. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

Tong, S. “Socioeconomic Position, Maternal IQ, Home Environment, and Cognitive Development.” The Journal of Pediatrics 151.3 (2007): 284-8. Web. 2 Dec. 2013

Turkheimer, E. “Socioeconomic Status Modifies Heritability of IQ in Young Children.” Psychological Science 14:6 (2003): 623-8. Web. 2 Dec. 2013.

What is a 21st-century neighborhood? How tied is it to the past? Why? What will a 22nd-century neighborhood look like? Is community dying, thriving, or just bumbling along, about the same now as always? Answer the above questions and be ready to talk in class about your final thoughts on Sampson's Chicago research and its relevance to communities generally.

In Sampson's conclusion about the changes he has seen in the city of Chicago, it is challenging to attempt to discern what he has truly found about the status of communities in the city and the change they have experienced. In his analysis of some parts of the city, it seems that some parts have changed for the better, some have stayed relatively the same, and some may have gotten worse. He seems to point to the answer being organizations that have the ability to bring communities together, as well as government funding being able to tie in individuals to make their lives and communities thrive.

Looking at Sampson's conclusion realistically, it is difficult to look into the future and see what the possibilities in future communities may be. While the world is becoming more technologically advanced on a daily basis, it would seem that the world would be brought closer together in an attempt to help humanity. While there are many humanitarian aid groups worldwide, the gap between the rich and poor countries of the world is ever-increasing. Here in the United States, the recession that began in the late 2000's continues to dwell, and is tied to community, economy, and crime in a very real way. It is difficult to say that if there were "X" numbers of government systems funded to help poor communities become more highly educated with less crime when the number of tax dollars to be spent on such projects is dwindling significantly. According to Forbes.com, there are 35 states in the U.S. where people could choose not to work and remain on welfare, and they would be better off than their counterparts who are working 40 hours a week at a minimum-wage job. Welfare, poverty, and crime seem to be so connected that the measurement of any one of these factors could directly influence the other two. It is a tremendous task to look into the future of this country.

Based off of the current course of the economy combined with the governmental procedure in solving the recession I am not able to answer the question to what will a 22nd-century neighborhood look like. My guess is that it will look very much like a 21st-century neighborhood, except for the fact that technology will continue to advance. There will always be crime, there will always be poverty, and there will always be factors of the economy that will not allow everyone to enjoy the same benefits. In answering Sampson's question, "Is the glass half-empty or half-full" my answer would be yes.

11th Blog Response

     Skip ahead one chapter to Sampson's Chp 16: Aftermath: Chicago-2010. Find at least one other source (it can even be a reputable local news source) about Chicago in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, and read that source as well. Now, what do you think of Sampson's arguments in the "aftermath" of the 2008 economic crisis? After answering that question, see if you can answer Sampson's own question: "Why does violence unhinge some communities and draw others closer together?" When you're done, give us your update on your presentation research, with citations.

     From the reading, it seems that Chicago was basically the same once the financial crisis was averted. Many of the same inequalities that were in place pre-2008 remained after the crisis had come and gone. Sampson points to many instances where the low-class areas were cleaned up, and made way for more middle-income mixed families to move in. Other places mentioned like in Washington Park there seems to be a slowdown of the economy, and people still waiting for jobs to return to the area. There are high foreclosures throughout the city, and many in the lower-income neighborhoods. It seems that the hardest areas hit were the black neighborhoods, often suffering much worse than the white or even mixed neighborhoods. Drawing from these two different views, Sampson concludes that stability and change simultaneously exist in the area. 

     The supporting article that I found was titled: Bank Lending During the Financial Crisis of 2008 by Victoria Ivanshina and David Scharfstein. This article talked about the loans and lending for real estate and other investments following the financial crash of 2008. This article talks about the lack of credit following the collapse, and examines what finally caused the collapse and it's effect on major cities and the marketplace.

     Update on my research: I have continued to research possible links between crime rates and poor health in impoverished areas and cities. Along with some research from Sampson, there are also other researchers who seem to link the possibility that when there is a tendency for a high crime rate there also tends to be tendencies towards low overall public health. I am trying to find if there is any current research that seems to explain why these tendencies arise, other than the research that I have already found and cited that states that there seems to simply be a correlation.

Tenth Blog Response

• Using Summon search engine and limiting yourself to peer-reviewed journal articles, build a 3-4 source bibliography, with commentary on the sources for each of two possible research presentation projects. Blog about your two possible projects and your sources you found for each.

One of the possible presentation topics that I have been thinking about would be one relating to violence and it's effect on youth, and different ways to measure that. My two interdisciplinary majors are Criminal Justice and Biology, and there are so many connections in both that lead us to believe that a child's earliest years through adolescence tend to be the most influencing on the path that their life will take. For this subject, I found two articles with the full text available online that discuss different factors and explanations for youth that are exposed to violent behaviors at a young age, and how they choose to cope with violence. Data is gathered and trends are measured throughout neighbors that attempt to explain the factors that go into a youth's violent behavior, where their influences may be coming from, and how it affects us as a society both socially and criminally.

     <Estrada-Martínez, Lorena M., Caldwell, Cleopatra, H., Schulz, Amy J., Diez-Roux, and Ana V., Pedraza, Silvia. "Families, Neighborhood Socio-Demographic Factors, and Violent Behaviors among Latino, White, and Black Adolescents." Youth Society June 2013: 45.2. SAGE Journals with Full Text. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.>

     <Zimmerman, Gregory, M., and Steven, F. Messner. "Individual, Family Background, And Contextual Explanations Of Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Youths' Exposure To Violence." American Journal Of Public Health 103.3 (2013): 435-442. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.>

• Another possible research topic that could connect both Biology and Criminal Justice would be links that are found to affect humans negatively, and connections that may be had to crime. There is some interesting speculation made between the effect that crime could have on us biologically, or the tendency for certain areas to have high rates of things such as asthma as well as a high rate of crime and how the two may coincide.

     <Golembeski, C, and R Fullilove. "Public Health Consequences Of Imprisonment. Criminal (In)Justice In The City And Its Associated Health Consequences." American Journal Of Public Health 95.10 (2005): 1701-1706. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.>

     <Emily, A. Wang, et al. "Neighborhood Incarceration Rate And Asthma Prevalence In New York City: A Multilevel Approach." American Journal Of Public Health 103.5 (2013): e38-44. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.>

Ninth Blog Response

I'd like you to post an entry putting forward your own responses (or positions) about the role of leadership elites in community contexts. Demonstrate familiarity with Sampson's chapter, but also express your own opinions clearly. When you're done with that part of the post, append a paragraph discussing how your own research for your presentation is going.

First off, I think the link that Sampson finds showing the connections between the various areas (Community organizations, politics, religion, law, education, business, and other) are very interesting. The influence that politics has on most of the rest of the institutions is high which can be expected, but also the ties between politics/community organizations and religion is noteworthy. It's interesting that in a city like Chicago there is such a high correlation between religion and politics, and I feel that if the same study were conducted here there would be an even higher correlation between the predominant religion and politics and community events.

Secondly, it's interesting to see the ties between all of the leaders at the community level and their ties to one another. Page 343 of the book gives us a good map of the community-level ties and even correlates that to family income, and delves deeper into all of the different ways that a community may be connected.

My research for the presentation is going well so far. It is quite easy to tie Biology and Criminal Justice to one another in some way, because in the past and even in present situations, they have been tied to one another as far as Biology causing crime, and crime being a derivative of our biological influences, etc. The exact topic that I will undertake when preparing for my presentation will be met when that is closer, but there are many useful resources that tie Biology to Criminal Justice and vice versa.

Eighth Blog Response

     You've read Sampson on mobility and division in Chicago. So, drawing on and integrating your two emphasis areas, how would you answer these two questions: Why do people chose to move to different neighborhoods? How likely is it that their individual choices will transform the communities they leave or enter?

     Why do people chose to move to different neighborhoods? Drawing on a biological standpoint, there could be many reasons why people choose one place over another. One of the reasons may be that people simply feel more comfortable in neighborhoods where they are surrounded by others like them. The neighborhood surroundings may be something they are comfortable with, or it may fit their life or lifestyle. As people tend to advance through generations, may their education and status will increase, and they will move on to a neighborhood with a higher socioeconomic status than their previous one.
     From a criminal justice standpoint, it could be viewed that people choose their neighborhoods either to participate in or distance themselves from crime. While one person may choose a certain neighborhood because they believe the likelihood of them being caught while participating in a certain act may decrease, another person may avoid that neighborhood due to a negative criminal stigma. The acceptance or avoidance of crime could be used to greatly influence where one chooses to reside, going even as far as to say the country that some people choose to live in may be influenced by the criminal opportunities offered them in a certain area.

     How likely is it that their individual choices will transform the communities they leave or enter? In biology, symbiotic relationships are those where individual organisms affect one another in a positive, negative, or neutral way. While this may not effect the ecology of a large area, it depends on the impact of that organism as to whether it will have a large or a small impact on their environment. As to people, I believe that humans can tend to interact in the same way and influence one another whether negatively, positively, neutrally, or anywhere in-between.
     From a criminal justice standpoint, and drawing from the research done in Sampson's book, it seems that individuals and their choices seem to have little influence on the communities they live in. Many of the things he says point to the fact that communities are an entity in themselves, and that they govern themselves regardless of who's there, who moves in/out, or many other factors.

Blog Response #7

• Write up your pair of sources for each of your two possible presentation topics, explaining the value of each source and how it might help you integrate your emphases for your term research presentation.

• One of the possible presentation topics that I have been thinking about would be one relating to violence and it's effect on youth, and different ways to measure that. My two interdisciplinary majors are Criminal Justice and Biology, and there are so many connections in both that lead us to believe that a child's earliest years through adolescence tend to be the most influencing on the path that their life will take. For this subject, I found two articles with the full text available online that discuss different factors and explanations for youth that are exposed to violent behaviors at a young age, and how they choose to cope with violence. Data is gathered and trends are measured throughout neighbors that attempt to explain the factors that go into a youth's violent behavior, where their influences may be coming from, and how it affects us as a society both socially and criminally.

     <Estrada-Martínez, Lorena M., Caldwell, Cleopatra, H., Schulz, Amy J., Diez-Roux, and Ana V., Pedraza, Silvia. "Families, Neighborhood Socio-Demographic Factors, and Violent Behaviors among Latino, White, and Black Adolescents." Youth Society June 2013: 45.2. SAGE Journals with Full Text. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.>
     <Zimmerman, Gregory, M., and Steven, F. Messner. "Individual, Family Background, And Contextual Explanations Of Racial And Ethnic Disparities In Youths' Exposure To Violence." American Journal Of Public Health 103.3 (2013): 435-442. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.>

• Another possible presentation topic is the effect that our biology may have on our tendency to commit or resist crime. This article attempts to integrate biology and criminal justice/criminology along with other sociological and psychological factors to delve into possible genetic factors that may influence us to commit crime. Among the things they study are autonomic arousal, neurobiology and neuroendocrine functioning in an attempt to find evidence supporting the theory that our biology does in fact relate to our behavior.

     <Wilson, Laura C., and Scarpa, Angela. "Criminal Behavior: The Need for an Integrative Approach That Incorporates Biological Influences." Journal of Contemporary Criminal-Justice Aug. 2012: 28.3. SAGE Journals with Full Text. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.>

Sixth Blog Response

     Introduce the sources you found after reading Sampson's 9th chapter. Explain how they relate to issues of particular importance to one or both of your emphases and then how you feel they relate to Sampson's methods for testing altruism, cynicism, and other-regarding behavior in Chicago. Be sure to include complete citation information for your sources.
     In Sampson's 9th chapter, he goes into great detail focusing on three main points: social altruism, cynicism, and the "good community." He explains how these things either go towards helping or hurting the collective good of the community, and summarizes by saying that collective efficacy along with an altruistic character help the community wellbeing while moral or legal cynicism harm the community wellbeing. This chapter is focused around a few tests that he examines in order to get a closer look at how the neighbors of Chicago may work. The two tests that he uses are the "lost letter" test and the CPR test, both of which he says will give us greater insight into how these neighborhoods work.
     One of the implications that Sampson points out towards the end of the chapter is that evolutionary biologists have linked altruistic behavior as a key factor in natural selection (230). In an article titled Can natural selection favour altruism between species, the authors Wyatt, West, and Gardner  develop a spatial population genetic model of two interacting species and study whether altruism between different species either helps or hurts one or both species throughout the course of natural selection. While they come to the final conclusion that "natural selection does not favour traits that provide benefits exclusively to individuals of other species," they were attempting to find a link between species that would show benefits from helping one another.
     Another interesting study is one conducted by Swatt, Varano, Uchida, and Solomon, and focuses on crime and collective efficacy in Miami. Titled Fear of crime, incivilities, and collective efficacy in four Miami neighborhoods, this research article attempts to tie in the importance of collective efficacy when focusing on crime. They did this through conducting surveys throughout Miami-Dade county, and then forming models based on these surveys. Through their studies they found that the "relationship between perceptions of collective efficacy and fear of crime exhibit significant heterogeneity between neighborhoods." They focused largely on the effects that incivilities such as physical/social disorder had on collective efficacy, and the effect that this then had on crime.

Works Cited:

Shellie E. Solomon, et al. "Fear Of Crime, Incivilities, And Collective Efficacy In Four Miami Neighborhoods." Journal Of          Criminal Justice 41.1 (2013): 1-11. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

Wyatt, G. A. K., S. A. West, and A. Gardner. "Can Natural Selection Favour Altruism Between Species?." Journal Of          Evolutionary Biology 26.9 (2013): 1854-1865. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.

Blog Response #5

• What is Collective Efficacy Theory (CET) as Sampson and colleagues define it? What is the evidence that you found in the international (or non-Chicago at least) study that you read? And how would you answer the questions that Sampson gave his respondents, asking about what they thought their neighbors would do in various situations, only with respect to your own neighborhood?

• Sampson lists the importance of two things as part of the concept of his Collective Efficacy Theory. The first thing that is key is the concept of "social cohesion" and the second key part is the "shared expectations for control." Social cohesion refers to the ability of a group to work together either effectively or ineffectively, and how that contributes to collective efficacy. Shared expectations for control outline the length to which the neighborhood or community is able to share the same expectations and goals with which they will build a stronger community.
• He goes through to list other integral factors such as: the capacity of residents to exercise control, social life distinguished by personal ties through networking, and the importance of mutual trust and social cohesion. Key things that influence collective efficacy seem to be things such as socioeconomic status, immigration, residential tenure, and instability. The whole purpose of the study is to pinpoint which of these factors contribute to high crime and poverty rates in a certain area. In a study done by PHDCN, the researchers attempted to determine the negative effects on a neighborhood that could be linked to collective efficacy. The research found that collective efficacy did have certain applications to their study on street crime, but also were able to link it to other health-related dimensions such as asthma, birth weight, self-rated health, and heat-wave deaths.
• Studies done outside of Chicago in the city of Stockholm found that the researchers were correct in determining correlations between collective efficacy and other predictions of violence. In a graph included on page 165, there is a high similarity between the cities of Stockholm and Chicago in their prediction of violence and its relationship to collective efficacy. All of this being said, Sampson comes to the conclusion that, "collective efficacy is relatively stable over time and that it predicts future variations in crime" (177-8). Taking the study beyond the cities of Chicago and Stockholm, researchers such as Mazerolle, Wickes, and McBroom (2010) found that they were also able to predict crime rates using the Collective Efficacy Theory and using it in an Australian context. They were able to find that "collective efficacy is a significant mechanism in explaining the spatial distribution of self-reported violent victimization," including Brisbane as just one more example that collective efficacy is cross-cultural. The information done in this research as well as many other studies attempts to further prove that collective efficacy is a viable theory in determining violence and crime. Community Variations in Violence: The Role of Social Ties and Collective Efficacy in Comparative Context, Lorraine Mazerolle, Rebecca Wickes, and James McBroom.
• In relation to my own neighborhood, I have been very blessed to grow up in a small town where there was very little crime. Up until a few years ago, we hardly had any neighbors and most of the crime in the city of Ivins, Utah could be traced to a few of the same areas (interestingly enough, also areas with the highest percentage of immigrants). As a response to the questions that Sampson poses, if children were skipping school and hanging out on the street corner, I feel like my neighbors would intervene. If children were seen spray painting graffiti on a local building, I feel like my neighbors would intervene. If children were seen showing disrespect to an adult within the community, I feel like they would intervene depending on the situation. If a fight broke out in front of one of my neighbors houses, I feel like they would intervene and take the appropriate action. If the fire station closest to home was threatened by budget cuts, I don't think they would intervene or raise funds/support. Most of the dialogue relating to trust, helpfulness, graffiti, fighting, and violence simply aren't applicable in the area that I grew up in. In contrast to my hometown, I was able to live in California for 2 years, and was able to experience some of the higher rates of crime and violence in the country and have been able to get an interesting view of the two different ways of life. While I haven't known much about collective efficacy before this study of Sampson and his literature, it is interesting to look back and think of these questions that he poses and see a definite correlation between those areas of high and low violence, crime, abuse, and poverty.

Fourth Blog Response

• Use your notes on Sampson's sixth chapter and the article you found that, in your view, either affirms or challenges Sampson's thesis about the appearance of disorder. Describe your reaction to both in specific detail and link the article you chose to your blog entry, so that others in the class can look it up. If possible, describe how you might use this material in a way relevant to one or both of your emphasis disciplines.

The appearance of disorder in many cases led to an overall "feel" of the neighborhood being either high or low-crime areas. Sampson compared a few different points of disorder such as Socially perceived disorder and concurrently observed disorder. The two types of disorder compared looked at how the citizens either living in or outside of, but often working in the city, viewed their neighborhood as either being high or low on the disorder scale. At the same time as the survey, Sampson was comparing the actual rate of disorder that was going on such as the crime rates, poverty level, etc. and making observations between the two. I find it interesting that Sampson points out the importance to remember context when using comparisons between social disorder, and explains how there may be perceived disorder in one area that would not even be noticed in another.

Something that makes me think of Sampson's viewing of social disorder reminds me of the drive to California from St. George. Growing up in St. George, there are many people in the community that take great care of their homes, their yards, and the surrounding areas. It was not commonplace growing up to see a McDonald's bag on the side of the road, or someone's discarded drink container thrown out the window when they were done using it. As you make the trek to Vegas, the feeling of community solidarity and cleanliness changes to a feeling of city life where their is trash and seeming decay everywhere, although those from Las Vegas probably wouldn't give it a second thought. The context of where the decay is, along with the people who are viewing it and how they see it is key when measuring perceived disorder.

In an outside article, authors Catherine E. Ross and John Mirowsky from the Ohio State University develop their own scale for perceived social disorder and find interesting distinctions between physical and social disorder. In both of these articles it seems that there is a correlation between perceived and actual disorder. Often those people living in the neighborhoods that are being viewed know the most about their neighborhoods, whether they are good or bad, high or low crime, etc. And it seems that their perception of the neighborhood, coupled with the perception of outsiders in how they view the area is often fairly accurate when pointing to things such as crime rates, drug use, and poverty.
http://uar.sagepub.com/content/34/3/412.abstract

The two disciplines that I am studying using my Interdisciplinary degree are Biology and Criminal Justice. It is interesting that the concept of profiling in Criminal Justice is very similar to this idea that disorder can be seen through "broken windows" in a neighborhood or area. Often those in the field are taught different techniques for determining situations, and reading criminals so they know how to best assess and successfully command a situation.

• "City life is made possible by an 'ordering' of the urban populace in terms of appearance and spatial location such that those within the city could know a great deal about one another by simply looking," - Lynn Lofland.

Third Blog Response

• After reading Sampson's review of the arguments and evidence for "poverty traps" of urban decay in inner-cities, Chicago in particular, and after reading the NYT article "The Death and Life of Chicago," blog your thoughts on the topic.

     The struggles among those citizens living in Chicago seems a world away from what is happening here in Southern Utah. The crime rates are starkly different, the demographics are not very similar, and the two places may be about as far as two places in the United States could be. Having said that, I have never been to Chicago, but I have been able to experience life in the "inner city" when I was living in San Bernardino, California for about a year. As of the most recent census, San Bernardino has the 5th highest crime rate in California, right behind Compton. The poverty traps that exist in these cities is very real, and many people are caught up in the psycho-graphics that seem to have a very real grip on the inner cities in places like Chicago, New York, and Detroit.

     While I really enjoyed the article about J.R. Fleming attempting to change the demographics of the city by placing people in the vacant homes, I don't know that this is the answer. While this may be one step to the process, it is only a part. There are two possible solutions to the problem that is discussed in the article:

     1: Clean up all of the neighborhoods that have homes in them with the potential to become drug and/or gang homes, and place in them homeless people who have been able to find stable housing due to any number of reasons.

     2: Allow for those homes to remain vacant with the premise that there will be a tighter security kept on them, or that they will be demolished altogether to remove any "blight" that is perceived by the community. Leave this lot vacant as an opportunity to boost the economy when an eligible home-buyer comes along who chooses to build here, and allow the neighborhoods to weed themselves out as those homes that are not able to be paid on remain vacant.

     While I am emotionally unconnected to the project that J.R. Fleming has going on, I can see that there is a great amount of good that he is attempting to accomplish through the Anti-Eviction campaign. That being said, I also believe that those under this system, just as under the welfare system, should be expected to give back and that there should be a guideline for doing so. As discussed in another blog and one of mine previous, there is a government program going on in Ivins, Utah, that gives people the opportunity to help build one another's homes at a government subsidized rate. Programs like this allow the feeling of entitlement to exit the situation and allow people to realize that although there are steps that should be made in helping the poor, there is still a certain extent that people have to go to to help themselves.

     The example of Martha Biggs, who serves on the Anti-Eviction campaign's advisory board is an example of the wrong kind of attitude to have if such an approach is to work. Originally kicked out of the Cabrini housing projects due to drug use, she had a strong hand in finding and subsequently living in the first house broken into and obtained for the campaign to use as an example. There need to be basic outlines such as no drug or alcohol use, you must hold some type of job, you must contribute X amount of time to community projects, etc. for such an endeavor to work. That being said, this campaign could serve to greatly help those people in Chicago who may not be as fortunate as others in obtaining a home, and I believe that no one should ever have to live on the streets or go hungry in the U.S.A. Having your own home is the "American Dream," and those who have worked for it would be cheated if others were to simply receive a hand-out. There are other ways for the government to allow those who have no home to find a place to live. And for those who are willing to work hard and obey the rules, there should be a set of guidelines that may place them on equal ground as other willing and able Americans.

• "In responding to the reading from Sampson, challenge yourself to apply his notions of the importance of place to your own neighborhoods. If it seems that the neighborhood you live in consists of total strangers, explain why. Also, what then are your real communities? To what groups do you really, passionately belong? Why?"
• I grew up in the small town of Ivins, Utah, just outside St. George and about 20 minutes away from the college. Ivins has only about 7,000 citizens and still has a "small-town" feel to it. One of the benefits of growing up in such a small town is that you knew almost everyone in town, or at least those within the half-mile or so surrounding your neighborhood. That being said, the neighborhood was pretty close-knit and mostly everyone knew each other and would help if needed. Add to that the fact that Utah has a high LDS population, and the fact that the majority of our neighbors all went to the same church and activities together, and we had a very close neighborhood, although it was probably smaller than what most people are used to.
• The real communities/groups that I belong to today would still be considered my old neighborhood, among other places. One of the things about my old neighborhood is that most people still live there, and when we go home we are still known and talk to mostly everyone who is still there. Although there have been a lot of people moving in (especially from California) there is still a feeling of closeness around the neighborhood, and plenty of people who are willing to help one another out. Another one of the groups that I belong to is Dixie State football. While I have only been here since December, it is very easy to join a group and feel very much a part of it especially when it involves some type of athletic group or club where multiple members are working towards a common goal. Add to that the fact that communities could be considered "football fans," "college football players," "college students," "students at DSU," etc., and it is very easy to see how one person could be connected to many different groups or at least easily assimilate into a group simply based on mutual interests.

First Blog Response

My name is RJ Best and I am a Junior at Dixie State University. I grew up in Ivins, UT, and went to school at Snow Canyon High School. After graduating high school, I served an LDS mission in California - San Bernardino. Upon returning from my mission, I attended from Snow College in Ephraim, and graduated with my Associate's Degree in the Fall of 2012. I am majoring in Integrated Studies with an emphasis in Biology and Criminal Justice. While I'm not sure what career or field I will pursue upon graduation, I enjoy the ability to receive educational insight into two fields of study that interest me.

The concepts of neighborhood and community could be considered very similar, but could have a different application depending on who it is. While most people would not refer to their neighborhood as a "community" when asked, I think that the concept of community is something that may be felt rather than a general vocabulary use of the word. Community to me is a group of people that may work together towards the same group of goals, or at least have each other's backs when it comes down to it. A neighborhood is more or less a geographical area with a certain mix of people residing there, but it could also be a "community" as well.

The reading so far has been interesting as far as the attempt to form true communities out of neighborhoods that may not have had that in the past. A community could be seen as an integrated group of people with many different skills, talents, and hobbies, etc. working together for the betterment of those around them. The topic of interdisciplinary studies is quite a useful one when dealing with communities due to the nature of a community and the need to have many different skills and types of people therein.