Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Neighborhood Social Heterogeneity and Crime Victimization in Japan: Moderating Effects of Social Networks

  • Published:
Asian Journal of Criminology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We sought to apply social disorganization/social capital theory to the prediction of larceny victimization among community-dwelling residents. Based on social disorganization theory, we empirically derived an index of “social distance” by calculating averaged differences in sociodemographic characteristics (social class, stage of life course, size of hometown of origin) between residents. Our study was based on a postal questionnaire mailed to 1,000 residents of Arakawa Ward, Tokyo, Japan. Based on social capital theory, we also tested if neighborhood-level social ties could buffer the association between social distance and larceny victimization. Using multilevel analyses, we found that higher neighborhood-level social distance was associated with increased larceny victimization, independently of the respondents’ own background sociodemographic characteristics. Additionally, area-level supportive networks buffered the adverse effect of social distance on larceny victimization. By contrast, we also found that network size magnified the probability of victimization in neighborhoods characterized by large social distances between residents.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Barabasi, A. L. (2002). Linked: the new science of networks. Cambridge: Perseus Book Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellair, P. E. (1997). Social interaction and community crime: examining the importance of neighbor networks. Criminology, 35, 677–704.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bellair, P. E. (2000). Informal surveillance and street crime: a complex relationship. Criminology, 38, 137–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bursik, R. J., & Grasmick, H. (1995). Neighborhoods and crime: the dimensions of effective community control. New York: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J., Cohen, P., West, S. G., & Aiken, L. S. (2003). Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. Mahwah: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elder, G. H. (1999). Children of the great depression: social change in life experience. Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, C. S. (1982). Two dwell among friends: personal networks in town and city. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter, M. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78, 1360–1380.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, D. P., Strolovitch, D. Z., & Wong, J. S. (1998). Defended neighborhoods, integration, and racially motivated crime. American Journal of Sociology, 104, 372–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hipp, J. R. (2007). Income inequality, race, and place: does the distribution of race and class within neighborhoods affect crime rates? Criminology, 45, 665–697.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hipp, J. R. (2010). Micro-structure in micro-neighborhoods: a new social distance measure, and its effect on individual and aggregated perceptions of crime and disorder. Social Networks, 32, 148–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hipp, J. R., & Perrin, A. J. (2009). The simultaneous effect of social distance and physical distance on the formation of neighborhood ties. City & Community, 8, 5–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, B. P., Kawachi, I., Prothrow-Stith, D., Lochner, K., & Gupta, V. (1998). Social capital, income inequality, and firearm violent crime. Social Science and Medicine, 47, 7–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuramitsu, T. (2008). Widening gap and its countermeasure in Japanese society. Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Kagawa University, 4, 23–47 (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Lederman, D., Loayza, N., & Menendez, A. M. (2002). Violent crime: does social capital matter? Economic Development and Cultural Change, 50, 509–539.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. (2002). Spatial patterns in residential burglary: assessing the effect of neighborhood social capital. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 18, 132–146.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massey, D. S., & Denton, N. A. (1987). Trends in the residential segregation of Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians: 1970–1980. American Sociological Review, 52, 802–825.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCulloch, A. (2003). An examination of social capital and social disorganization in neighborhoods in the British household panel study. Social Science & Medicine, 56, 1425–1438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Messner, S. F., Baumer, E. P., & Rosenfeld, R. (2004). Dimensions of social capital and rates of criminal homicide. American Sociological Review, 69, 882–903.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mizoguchi, T. (1992). Contemporary problems of statistical survey in Japan. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Morenoff, J. D., Sampson, R. J., & Raudenbush, S. W. (2001). Neighborhood inequality, collective efficacy, and the spatial dynamics of urban violence. Criminology, 39, 517–559.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Otake, F. (2005). Inequality in Japan: dreams and future of unequal society. Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shinbun (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, W. (1993a). Trends of the crime rate in the postwar Japan: a time-series regression approach (1). Hougaku Shinpou, 99, 165–230 (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, W. (1993b). Trends of the crime rate in the postwar Japan: a time-series regression approach (2). Hougaku Shinpou, 99, 221–266 (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, W. (1994). Trends of the crime rate in the postwar Japan: a time-series regression approach (3). Hougaku Shinpou, 99, 169–195 (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Patacchini, E., & Zenou, Y. (2008). The strength of weak ties in crime. European Economic Review, 52, 209–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R. D. (1995). Bowling alone: America’s declining social capital. Journal of Democracy, 6, 65–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, D. R., & Clear, T. R. (1998). Incarceration, social capital, and crime: implications for social disorganization theory. Criminology, 36, 441–479.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenfeld, R., Messner, S. F., & Baumer, E. P. (2001). Social capital and homicide. Social Forces, 80, 283–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ross, C. E., & Jang, S. J. (2000). Neighborhood disorder, fear, and mistrust: the buffering role of social ties with neighbors. American Journal of Community Psychology, 28, 401–420.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rountree, P. W., & Warner, B. D. (1999). Social ties and crime: is the relationship gendered? Criminology, 37, 789–814.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, R. J. (1984). Group size, heterogeneity, and intergroup conflict: a test of Blau’s inequality and heterogeneity. Social Forces, 62, 618–639.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, R. J. (1988). Local friendship ties and community attachment in mass society: a multilevel systemic model. American Sociological Review, 53, 766–779.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, R. J. (1995). The community. In J. Q. Wilson & J. Petersilia (Eds.), Crime (pp. 193–216). San Francisco: Institute for Contemporary Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, R. J., & Groves, W. B. (1989). Community structure and crime: testing social-disorganization theory. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 774–802.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, R. J., Raudenbush, S. W., & Earls, F. (1997). Neighborhoods and violent crime: a multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science, 277, 918–924.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, C., & McKay, H. (1942). Juvenile delinquency and urban areas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shigekawa, J. (1997). Features of missing values in the panel survey on consumption behavior. Research on Household Economics, 33, 76–83 (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, B., Hastedt, C., & Aufderheide, B. (1997). When self-categorization makes sense: the role of meaningful social categorization in minority and majority members’ self-perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 310–320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Small, M. L. (2008). Unanticipated gains: origins of network inequality in everyday life. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • South, S. J., & Deane, G. D. (1993). Race and residential mobility: individual determinants and structural constraints. Social Forces, 72, 147–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takagi, D., Tsuji, R., & Ikeda, K. (2010). Crime control by local communities: focusing on social capital and cooperative behaviors in neighborhoods. Japanese Journal of Social Psychology, 26, 36–45 (in Japanese).

    Google Scholar 

  • Watts, D. J. (2003). Six degrees: the science of a connected age. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wirth, L. (1956a). Life in the city. In L. Wirth (Ed.), Community life and social policy (pp. 206–217). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wirth, L. (1956b). Urbanism as a way of life. In P. Kasinitz (Ed.), Metropolis: center and symbol of our times (pp. 58–82). New York: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant received by the first author from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant Number: DC2 22-8772).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    Daisuke Takagi

  2. Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Ichiro Kawachi

Authors
  1. Daisuke Takagi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ichiro Kawachi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daisuke Takagi.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Takagi, D., Kawachi, I. Neighborhood Social Heterogeneity and Crime Victimization in Japan: Moderating Effects of Social Networks. Asian Criminology 9, 271–284 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-014-9191-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-014-9191-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation