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The Neo-Jacobian Perspective of Place and Neighborhood Crime: A Case Study of Property Ownership, Redevelopment, and Crime in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio

Linning, Shannon J

Abstract Details

2019, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Criminal Justice.
Architectural journalist Jane Jacobs is arguably one of the most influential figures in urban social sciences and city planning. Yet, she has received minimal attention in the criminological literature. I argue this stemmed from her ideas being linked to those of Oscar Newman. However, these initial interpretations of her ideas—namely that street safety is achieved through surveillance by residents—do not appear to take her contextual examples into account. This mistake is important because it obscures a vital source of social control in urban environments. In this dissertation I examine Jacobs’ work and argue that she regarded shopkeepers (i.e., place managers) as the primary source of informal social control. While past interpretations assume Jacobs had a resident-focused explanation of crime, I propose that she had an owner/manager-focus in her writing. From this I unite her work with recent theories of place management into a Neo-Jacobian perspective of place and neighborhood crime. The theory highlights how deliberate decisions and actions taken by property owners and government agencies give rise to neighborhood crime. I then test the theory with three studies using a mixed methods approach. The first study examines the mechanisms of property ownership and neighborhood crime through qualitative interviews in Walnut Hills, a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio that is currently under redevelopment. Next, I conduct a time series analysis to examine how place-based redevelopment influences neighborhood crime in the same neighborhood. The last study tests the notion that there are at least two distinct crime generating processes operating within neighborhoods and that each possess different causal mechanisms. The results suggest that people external to neighborhoods can wield immense control within neighborhoods through property ownership. Moreover, the political decisions that impact the economic vitality of businesses can have a strong influence on crime. However, the collective efforts to change ownership—particularly of businesses—using a place-based strategy can abate some of these crime problems. Lastly, crime at hotspots do not appear to be caused by the same mechanisms proposed in the resident-focused literature. Instead, there are other crime generating process operating at these locations that contribute to neighborhood crime. Although the results provide support for the Neo-Jacobian perspective and the existence of owner/manager effects, they do not refute the existence of resident-focused ones. This implies the need to unite these two perspectives in our study of neighborhood crime. Future research should also explore how governmental policies influence ownership and management practices within neighborhoods.
John Eck, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
J.C. Barnes, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Kate Bowers, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Pamela Wilcox, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
253 p.

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Citations

  • Linning, S. J. (2019). The Neo-Jacobian Perspective of Place and Neighborhood Crime: A Case Study of Property Ownership, Redevelopment, and Crime in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1553528798124223

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Linning, Shannon. The Neo-Jacobian Perspective of Place and Neighborhood Crime: A Case Study of Property Ownership, Redevelopment, and Crime in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio. 2019. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1553528798124223.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Linning, Shannon. "The Neo-Jacobian Perspective of Place and Neighborhood Crime: A Case Study of Property Ownership, Redevelopment, and Crime in Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1553528798124223

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)