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Article 1: Hipp, J. R., & Steenbeek, W. (2016). Types of crime and types of mechanisms: What are the consequences for neighborhoods over time? Crime & Delinquency, 62(9), 1203–1234.

Abstract: Using a longitudinal data set of 317 neighborhoods from 1996 to 2002 in Utrecht, The Netherlands, this study tests whether types of crime differentially impact (a) the mechanisms of social disorganization theory and (b) residents’ mobility behavior and attitudes toward the neighborhood. Neighborhoods with more cohesion have less violence 2 years later. Also, neighborhoods perceiving more violence experience lower levels of cohesion 2 years later. Higher levels of perceived violence were most important for explaining who moves out of the neighborhood, as such neighborhoods had more non-Whites and more lower income households at the next time point. Burglaries (a crime that occurs in private space) appear to increase residents’ sense of feeling responsibility for the neighborhood.

Questions that apply to this article:

1. What was hypothesis 1? What would the null hypothesis be?
2. What was hypothesis 8? What would the null hypothesis be?
3. For hypotheses 1 and 8, was the null hypothesis rejected?
    

Article 2: Jackson, J. (2011). Revisiting risk sensitivity in the fear of crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 48(4), 513–537.

Abstract: This article considers the psychology of risk perception in worry about crime. A survey-based study replicates a long-standing finding that perceptions of the likelihood of criminal victimization predict levels of fear of crime. But perceived control and perceived consequence also play two roles: (a) each predicts perceived likelihood and (b) each moderates the relationship between perceived likelihood and worry about crime. Public perceptions of control and consequence thus drive what Mark Warr defines as “sensitivity to risk.” When individuals perceive crime to be especially serious in its personal impact, and when individuals perceive that they have little personal control over the victimization event occurring, a lower level of perceived likelihood is needed to stimulate worry about crime.

Questions that apply to this article:

1. How was statistical probability utilized in this study?
2. Identify one of the research hypotheses and state what its null hypothesis was.
3. What were the primary findings of this study with regard to the perception of probability for victimization?