ABSTRACT
Social disorganisation theorists maintain that structural variables, such as poverty, ethnic heterogeneity and geographic mobility, exert their effects on crime by reducing the level of informal social control or collective efficacy in a neighbourhood. There is a large body of individual level evidence, however, that suggests that structural variables exert their effects on offending by disrupting the parenting process (e.g. by reducing the level of parental supervision). The purpose of this chapter is to report the results of an aggregate-level study designed to investigate whether the aggregate-level effects of poverty, ethnic heterogeneity and geographic mobility on rates of juvenile participation in crime are produced by raising the level of child neglect in a neighbourhood. The results support this hypothesis. Possible limitations of the study are discussed and suggestions for more definitive research are put forward.
