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What effect did the mob have on Chicago neighborhoods? Explicating the relationship between racket subcultures and informal social control

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Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between racket subcultures and informal social control. Specifically, this paper examines the influence of traditional organized crime on informal social control in community areas while controlling for satisfaction with the police, tolerance of deviance, neighborhood and organizational ties, and neighborhood attachment. The data used in this analysis comes from the Community Survey of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. They were obtained from the Inter University Consortium of Political and Social Science Research. Ordered logistic regression was used to analyze the data. The findings indicate that racket areas reported higher levels of informal social control when compared to similar non racket areas in the city of Chicago. These findings have important implications for the study of deviance. Not only do they suggest that criminals can play an important role in controlling street crime, the findings also support differential social organization theory.

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Notes

  1. U.S. v. Rocco Ernest Infelise et al. 90 CR 87, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division; U.S. v. Pat Marcy and Fred Roti 90 CR 1045U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division; U.S. v. Anthony C. Zizzo et al. 92 CR 1034, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division; U.S. v. Nicholas Calabrese et al. 02 CR 1050, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. Calabrese et al. 02 CR 1050, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

  2. The neighborhood cluster that includes O’Hare airport was excluded from the analyses, as suggested by

    Sampson et al. 1997.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology, California State University, Fresno, 2576 E San Ramon, MS/ST104, Fresno, CA, 93740, USA

    Hollianne Marshall

  2. Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology, Loyola University, Chicago, 820 N. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60631, USA

    Robert M. Lombardo

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  1. Hollianne Marshall
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  2. Robert M. Lombardo
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Correspondence to Hollianne Marshall.

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Marshall, H., Lombardo, R.M. What effect did the mob have on Chicago neighborhoods? Explicating the relationship between racket subcultures and informal social control. Trends Organ Crim 19, 125–148 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-016-9272-5

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