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theses

This doctoral dissertation evaluated neighborhood level social environmental characteristics and their effects on creating residential burglary risk in Bursa, Turkey. In doing so, it follows the social disorganization and environmental criminology frameworks. The dissertation describes a multi-method study. Quantitative analysis focused on three separate issues. First, Census and police crime data were used in a bivariate and multivariate neighborhood level analysis. Neighborhood level social disorganization measures correlate strongly with the burglary rate. Second, feature environmental geocoded data were obtained and the key variables were treated as risk factors for the Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM) and traditional crime hot spot analysis. RTM is a better predictor of future burglaries when compared to hot spot analysis. Third, 165 neighborhoods of Bursa were coded into 4 categories according to physical structure: shantytowns, single family housing, adjacent type buildings, and multi-family apartment complexes. The neighborhood level burglary risk was regressed on the neighborhood type. Results indicate that type of neighborhood is significantly related to neighborhood level criminogenic risk. This dissertation also explored the role of neighborhood’s social characteristics by adding field observations of these differing social contexts. The researcher focused on indicators of risk and the social environmental context of four neighborhood types. The study found that single family housing neighborhoods have the lowest risk of residential burglary. These findings have important implications for interventions in urban settings, providing insights into the role that neighborhood characteristics can have on these encouraging crime and social disorder

ETD_4837

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

Includes vita

by Murat Ozkan

http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10002600001.ETD.000068740

doi:10.7282/T3NG4P7R

ETD doctoral

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