Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
2-2019
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
Criminal Justice
Advisor
Deborah Koetzle
Committee Members
Eric Piza
Preeti Chauhan
Michael Rempel
Subject Categories
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Keywords
Criminology, Social Ecology, Neighborhood, Risk, Policing, Concentrated Disadvantage, Actuarial, Recidivism
Abstract
The last decade has witnessed unprecedented efforts to reform the criminal justice system and stem the tide of mass incarceration in the United States. Persistently high rates of recidivism among justice-system involved individuals, however, present a significant obstacle to the success of these efforts. Thirty years of research in the fields of social psychology and criminology has produced a shared understanding of the individual characteristics that drive recidivism, but less is known regarding the influence of social environment. This research makes several unique contributions to a growing body of scholarship examining recidivism in the context of neighborhood, including being one of the first studies to isolate the effect of neighborhood-based police enforcement tactics. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the present study separately examines the effects of neighborhood policing and concentrated disadvantage on individual recidivism, while controlling for a robust model of individual risk. Findings confirm the importance of individual risk factors for predicting recidivism, but also suggest that neighborhood factors play a role in shaping individual risk. Policy implications are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Fritsche, Sarah Picard, "Neighborhood Ecology and Recidivism: A Case Study in NYC" (2019). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2985