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Neighborhood characteristics and auto theft: An empirical research from the social disorganization perspective

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Abstract

Despite the prevalence of auto theft and associated economic loss, the offense is relatively underexplored in the literature. The current study examines auto theft in the context of social disorganization theory. Using 2000 US Census data and 2005 Houston Police Department incident reports, auto theft rates across census tracts are compared on four dimensions of neighborhood social disorganization. Multivariate analysis indicates support for social disorganization theory; concentrated disadvantage, residential stability and racial heterogeneity had a significant effect on auto theft rates. In contrast, neighborhood immigration did not affect auto theft rates. The limitations of the study and policy implications are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Previous studies also examined in auto theft mostly in light of offenders’ motive, decision making, target hardening and travel pattern (Clarke and Weisburd, 1994; Rengert, 1997; Potchak et al, 2002).

  2. Since not everyone owns a car, a better description of incident rate would be dividing the number of stolen vehicles by the number of vehicles for each census tract. However, no available data set could identify the number of registered vehicles for each census tract. So we decided to use the rate of victims to the total population as an alternative approach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, 77341–2296, Texas, USA

    Bora Lee & Larry Hoover

  2. School of Public Affairs, Pennsylvania State University – Harrisburg, 777 West Harrisburg Pike, Middletown, 17057–4898, Pennsylvania, USA

    Joongyeup Lee

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  1. Bora Lee
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  2. Joongyeup Lee
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Correspondence to Joongyeup Lee.

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Lee, B., Lee, J. & Hoover, L. Neighborhood characteristics and auto theft: An empirical research from the social disorganization perspective. Secur J 29, 400–408 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/sj.2013.35

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