NCJ Number
167741
Date Published
1997
Length
22 pages
Annotation
A new and more synthetic sociological framework is articulated for the developmental study of street crime in the United States; the framework incorporates both historical and contemporary currents that involve closely connected social and economic processes in the study of society.
Abstract
The more specific focus of the framework is on processes of capitalization, and the framework is built around such concepts as capital disinvestment and recapitalization, social and cultural capital, criminal capital and embeddedness, and deviance service centers and ethnic vice industries. The adoption of these concepts is intended as a synthesizing strategy to blend qualitative and quantitative research interests and to bridge macro- and micro- level studies focused on official reactions and other community and family socioenvironmental causes of crime. Crime and capital are examined in the context of residential segregation, racial inequality, and poverty. Social and economic forms of capital are identified, and recapitalization is discussed in terms of the drug economy and delinquency. 73 references