Under Siege - Poverty and Crime in a Public Housing Community

Under Siege is one of the first books of its kind. It vividly describes the devastating consequences of living in a public housing community damaged by the disappearance of manufacturing jobs, government cutbacks, and other alarming structural transformations that currently plague the United States and Canada. Walter DeKeseredy and his colleagues build on the rich theoretical perspectives developed by feminist scholars-as well as those constructed by Jock Young, Robert Sampson, and William Julius Wilson-as they present both the qualitative and quantitative results of a case study of six public housing estates located in an impoverished urban area.

This groundbreaking book provides an in-depth analysis of predatory crime victimization, intimate partner victimization, public racial and sexual harassment, and the relationship of all these harms to the residents' perceptions of their neighborhood social disorganization/collective efficacy. Under Siege is uniquely valuable both for its rich theoretical basis and for its transparent presentation of the authors' research methodology. It is a thought-provoking sociological contribution that offers progressive strategies for ameliorating both poverty and crime in North American public housing complexes.

List of contents

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 The Historical, Political, and Economic Context of the West Town Study
Chapter 3 Predatory Crime Victimization, Illegal Drug Use, and Alcohol Consumption in West Town: Incidence and Sociodemographic Risk Factors
Chapter 4 Violence Against and the Harassment of Women in West Town
Chapter 5 The Role of Perceived Social Disorganization and Collective Efficacy
Chapter 6 The Failure of Neo-Conservative Policy
Chapter 7 Rethinking Crime Prevention in Public Housing
Chapter 8 Appendix A: The QNLS Instrument
Chapter 9 Appendix B: Face-to-Face Interview Schedule
Chapter 10 References

About the author

Walter S. DeKeseredy is Anna Deane Carlson Endowed Chair of Social Sciences, Director of the Research Center on Violence, and professor of sociology at West Virginia University.

Product details

• Authors: Shahid Alvi, Alvi Shahid, Walter S Dekeseredy, Walter S. DeKeseredy, Martin D Schwartz, Schwartz Martin D., Andreas E Tomaszewski, Tomaszewski Andreas E.
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 11.08.2003
• EAN: 9780739107041
• ISBN: 978-0-7391-0704-1
• No. of pages: 200
• Dimensions: 201 mm x 217 mm x 15 mm
• Weight: 295 g
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Poverty & Homelessness, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Violence in Society, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Human Services, Poverty & unemployment, Violence in society, Causes & Prevention Of Crime, Violence and abuse in society, Causes and prevention of crime, Poverty and precarity, Welfare & benefit systems, Welfare and benefit systems