Dissertation
CONTESTED PLACES, TRANSGRESSIVE SPACES: CRIME, PERCEIVED DISORDER, AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT IN PORTLAND, OREGON NEIGHBORHOODS
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000002433
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/119405
Abstract
This dissertation includes three journal-length articles and an overall introduction and conclusion, totaling five chapters. Two articles were published in academic journals, Sociology Compass (Chapter 2) and Homicide Studies (Chapter 3). The third article will be submitted to a journal after further revisions. The first study (Chapter 2) provides a comprehensive review of quantitative research on the relationship between crime, the built environment, land use, and/or physical geography, through sociological and critical geography lenses. An historical overview of criminological and spatial theories is presented before examining the current state of the field. In honor of critical geography’s goal to be “a people’s geography,” this chapter aims to be an accessible overview of space- and place-based criminological research, especially for unfamiliar readers.
The second study (Chapter 3) assesses the relationship between land use (percent zoning designation per census tract sq. km), and homicide in Portland, Oregon, while controlling for other neighborhood characteristics. Results from negative binomial models suggest that land use – specifically, mixed-use residential (positive association) and single-family residential (negative association) – have significant predictive value for homicide counts beyond neighborhood and socioeconomic characteristics deemed important by criminological theory and research.
The third study (Chapter 4) argues that although there is an extensive body of qualitative research on graffiti, quantitative research is lacking. Quantitative studies often use graffiti as a disorder indicator, but it is rarely studied in and of itself. This study aims to bring together the conflict-oriented perspectives presented by qualitative work with a quantitative analysis of graffiti in Portland, Oregon. Using evidence from qualitative work, a “resistance perspective” is employed to create and interpret analyses. The distribution of graffiti incidents over time and space is explored before analyzing changes in graffiti overtime using fixed-effects regression models. Multivariate analyses test how changes in neighborhood-level demographic and gentrification indicators are related to changes in graffiti rates from 2000 to 2010. Significant results suggest that neighborhood-level percent renters, median home value, and percent Hispanic residents are associated with increases in graffiti, separately, whereas neighborhood-level percent Black residents is associated with decreases in graffiti. Results and implications are discussed using the resistance perspective.
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Details
- Title
- CONTESTED PLACES, TRANSGRESSIVE SPACES: CRIME, PERCEIVED DISORDER, AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT IN PORTLAND, OREGON NEIGHBORHOODS
- Creators
- Alana Inlow
- Contributors
- Jennifer Schwartz (Advisor)Clayton Mosher (Committee Member)Thomas Rotolo (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Sociology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 165
- Identifiers
- 99900606757101842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation