ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the history of the ecology and crime scholarship and provides a theoretical orientation to the Australian Community Capacity Study (ACCS). The ACCS is embedded within a rich family of theories including social disorganisation theory, systemic theories of crime, collective efficacy, broken windows and social capital theory. In this chapter, we review the neighbourhood effects literature and introduce the ecological model of community regulation that underpins the ACCS. Using this model, we theoretically explicate the relationships between community structure, action norms, informal social control behaviours and crime and disorder. This chapter also provides an engaging overview of the ACCS, giving insight into what life is like in Australian cities. We overview Australian communities, define our unit of analysis – the state suburb – and critically examine its relevance to understanding concentrations of crime. We consider issues associated with conceptualising a geographical ‘community’ and the role communities play in generating residents’ sense of belonging and attachment. We conclude the chapter with an overview the aims and structure of this book, linking the content of individual chapters back to the larger international scholarship on the ecology of crime.
