ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To study the association between social disorganization and youth violence rates in rural communities. METHOD: We employed rural Missouri counties (N = 106) as units of analysis, measured serious violent victimization data via hospital records, and the same measures of social disorganization as Osgood and Chambers (2000). Controlling for spatial autocorrelation, the negative binomial estimator was used to estimate the effects of social disorganization on youth violence rates. RESULTS: Unlike Osgood and Chambers, we found only one of five social disorganization measures, the proportion of female-headed households, to be associated with rural youth violent victimization rates. CONCLUSION: Although most research on social disorganization theory has been undertaken on urban areas, a highly cited Osgood and Chambers (2000) study appeared to extend the generalize ability of social disorganization as an explanation of the distribution of youth violence to rural areas. Our results suggest otherwise. We provide several methodological and theoretical reasons why it may be too early to draw strong conclusions about the generalize ability of social disorganization to crime rates in rural communities.
Subject(s)
Adolescent Behavior , Anomia , Residence Characteristics , Rural Population , Violence , Adolescent , Adolescent Behavior/ethnology , Adolescent Behavior/history , Adolescent Behavior/physiology , Adolescent Behavior/psychology , Adolescent Development , Anomia/economics , Anomia/ethnology , Anomia/history , Crime Victims/economics , Crime Victims/education , Crime Victims/history , Crime Victims/legislation & jurisprudence , Crime Victims/psychology , History, 20th Century , History, 21st Century , Humans , Missouri/ethnology , Residence Characteristics/history , Rural Population/history , United States/ethnology , Violence/economics , Violence/ethnology , Violence/history , Violence/legislation & jurisprudence , Violence/psychologyABSTRACT
The author of this paper demonstrates that the sociological concept of anomie has undergone important transformations when applied in psychiatric research. It is argued that these transformations are not fully in concordance with the original theories of anomie as they were set forth by Durkheim and Merton. Two approaches in social and cross-cultural psychiatry are examined in this context. First, the concept of anomia as introduced and applied in the research of Leo Srole is discussed. Second, attention is paid to the concept of anomic depression as it was introduced by Wolfgang Jilek in his research among the Coast Salish Indians.
