Urbanism, Race, and Crime

Abstract

There is general agreement that urbanism is an important correlate of criminality. However, the interpretation of the relation is a matter of theoretical dispute. Some argue that differences in crime rates across the urban-rural dimension can be attributed to differences in the compositions of the populations residing in those areas. The most common argument is that there is a confounding effect between urbanism and race. This paper uses National Crime Survey data to test the compositional argument. The findings imply a reconsideration of the accepted relationship between urbanism and crime generally portrayed in the criminological literature. Data limitations are noted.