Skip to main content

Disorder: Observational and Perceptual Measures

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Overview

This entry provides a synopsis of disorder-related research methods, measures, and analytic frameworks. The entry is intended to give readers a better understanding of trends in disorder-related research and the many facets of disorder analysis; aspects covered in the literature range from the various ways in which individuals and communities conceptualize disorder to the roles of homeownership, organizational participation, and land use in predicting crime in neighborhoods. Methods employed in extensive studies in Chicago, Baltimore, and Salt Lake City are cited here for illustrative purposes. The entry concludes with a summary of major findings from those studies as well as suggestions for future disorder-related research. Literature on disorder frequently refers to social or physical incivilities (Taylor and Hale 1986), and this entry will use the terms disorder and incivilities interchangeably.

The Evolution of Disorder Research

Conceptualizations of neighborhood-level...

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

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 4,350.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 4,999.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Recommended Reading and References

  • Brown BB, Perkins DD, Brown G (2004a) Crime, new housing, and housing incivilities in a first ring suburb: multilevel relationships across time. Hous Policy Debate 15(2):301–345

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown BB, Perkins DD, Brown G (2004b) Incivilities, place attachment and crime: block and individual effects. J Environ Psychol 24:359–371

    Google Scholar 

  • Franzini L, Caughy MOB, Nettles SM, O’Campo P (2008) Perceptions of disorder: contributions of neighborhood characteristics to subjective perceptions of disorder. J Environ Psychol 28(1):83–93

    Google Scholar 

  • Gau JM, Pratt TC (2010) Revisiting broken windows theory: examining the sources of the discriminant validity of perceived disorder and crime. J Crim Justice 38(4):758–766

    Google Scholar 

  • Haney TJ (2007) ‘Broken windows’ and self-esteem: subjective understandings of neighborhood poverty and disorder. Soc Sci Res 36(3):968–994

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs J (1961) The death and life of great American cities. Random House, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurtz EM, Koons BA, Taylor RB (1998) Land use, physical deterioration, resident – based control and calls for service on urban street blocks. Justice Q 15(1):121–149

    Google Scholar 

  • Perkins DD, Florin P, Rich RC, Wandersman A, Chavis DM (1990) Participation and the social and physical environment of residential blocks: crime and community context. Am J Commun Psychol 18:83–115

    Google Scholar 

  • Perkins DD, Meeks JW, Taylor RB (1992) The physical environment of street blocks and resident perceptions of crime and disorder: implications for theory and measurement. J Environ Psychol 12:21–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Perkins DD, Taylor RB (1996) Ecological assessments of community disorder: their relationship to fear of crime and theoretical implications. Am J Commun Psychol 24:63–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Perkins DD, Wandersman A, Rich RC, Taylor RB (1993) The physical environment of street crime: defensible space, territoriality and incivilities. J Environ Psychol 13:29–49

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson JB, Lawton BA, Taylor RB, Perkins DD (2003) Multilevel longitudinal impacts of incivilities: fear of crime, expected safety, and block satisfaction. J Quant Criminol 19(3):237–274

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross CE, Mirowsky J (2001) Neighborhood disadvantage, disorder, and health. J Heal Soc Behav 42(3):258–276

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross CE, Mirowsky J (2009) Neighborhood disorder, subjective alienation, and distress. J Heal Soc Behav 50(1):49–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson RJ, Groves WB (1989) Community structure and crime: testing social – disorganization theory. Am J Sociol 94(4):774–802

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson RJ, Raudenbush SW (1999) Systematic social observation of public spaces: a new look at disorder in urban neighborhoods. Am J Sociol 105(3):603–651

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson RJ, Raudenbush SW (2004) Seeing disorder: neighborhood stigma and the social construction of “broken windows”. Soc Psychol Q 67(4):319–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Schweitzer JH, Kim JW, Mackin JR (1999) The impact of the built environment on crime and fear of crime in urban neighborhoods. J Urban Technol 6(3):59–73

    Google Scholar 

  • Shinn M (1990) Mixing and matching: levels of conceptualization, measurement, and statistical analysis in community research. In: Tolan P, Keys C, Chertok F, Jason LA (eds) Researching community psychology: issues of theory and methods. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 111–126

    Google Scholar 

  • Suttles GD (1968) The social order of the slum: ethnicity and territory in the inner city. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor RB (1987) Toward an environmental psychology of disorder: delinquency, crime, and fear of crime. In: Stokols D, Altman I (eds) Handbook of environmental psychology, vol 2. Wiley-Interscience, New York, pp 951–986

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor RB (1996) Neighborhood responses to disorder and local attachments: the systemic model of attachment, social disorganization, and neighborhood use value. Sociol Forum 11(1):41–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor RB (1997) Social order and disorder of street blocks and neighborhoods: ecology, microecology, and the systemic model of social disorganization. J Res Crime Delinq 34(1):113–155

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor RB, Hale M (1986) Testing alternative models of fear of crime. J Crim Law Criminol 77(1):151–189

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor RB, Shumaker SA (1990) Local crime as a natural hazard: Implications for understanding the relationship between disorder and fear of crime. Am J Commun Psychol 18(5):619–641

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor RB, Shumaker SA, Gottfredson SD (1985) Neighborhood-level links between physical features and local sentiments: deterioration, fear of crime, and confidence. J Archit Plan Res 2(4):261–275

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor RB, Koons BA, Kurtz EM, Greene JR, Perkins DD (1995) Street blocks with more nonresidential land use have more physical deterioration: evidence from Baltimore and Philadelphia. Urban Aff Rev 31:120–136

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcox P, Quisenberry N, Cabrera DT, Jones S (2004) Busy places and broken windows? Toward defining the role of physical structure and process in community crime models. Sociol Q 45(2):185–207

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson JQ, Kelling GL (1982) Broken windows: the police and neighborhood safety. Atlantic 249(3):29–38

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donald L. Anthony .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Anthony, D.L., Perkins, D.D. (2014). Disorder: Observational and Perceptual Measures. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_149

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_149

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5689-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5690-2

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Publish with us

Policies and ethics