Narratives of crime and criminals: how places socially construct the crime

Citation

Leverentz, A. (2012, June). Narratives of Crime and Criminals: How Places Socially Construct the Crime Problem 1. In Sociological Forum (Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 348-371). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The authors find that the racial makeup of communities shapes the way that residents think about people who break the law. In historically Black neighborhoods, people consider crime to be a community problem, while people in historically white neighborhoods consider crime to be a problem caused by outsiders. Reaction to news coverage of crime and support for policy responses to crime also differ based on the demographic history of the neighborhood.