Redai dili (Oct 2022)
An Analysis of the Correlation between Social Isolation and Crime Suffered by Urban Residents: A Case Study of Guangzhou
Abstract
Research on the relationship between social isolation and crime has mainly focused on racial or ethnic social isolation; however, data on the individual activity and emotional and other aspects is relatively insufficient. Based on the questionnaire data, this study constructed an index system of social isolation combining social connection, neighborhood connection, activity connection, and emotional connection, controlled the impacts of basic attributes of the individual, and analyzed the correlation between social isolation and the four crime types, namely violence, burglary, pickpocketing in the community, and pickpocketing outside the community. In this study, 74 typical communities in Guangzhou, China were selected. A total of 1,568 questionnaires were distributed through a household survey among which 1,148 questionnaires were selected for the final analysis from the residents who had lived in the community for more than three years. Findings indicate that social isolation has a significant positive correlation with the residents' criminal victimization while there is a negative correlation between some indicators and specific crime types. (1) There is only one index with significant correlation between social isolation and violence (negative correlation), which means whether the residents can make suggestions to the neighborhood committees and other departments. (2) The indexes with a significant correlation between social isolation and burglary include the number of family members and friends in the community (negative correlation), community affection (positive correlation), and community management service satisfaction (positive correlation). (3) Indicators of a significant correlation between social isolation and pickpocketing in the community include the number of relatives and friends in the community (negative correlation), whether neighbors visit each other (positive correlation), whether neighbors borrow from each other (negative correlation), and the residents' satisfaction with the community management services (positive correlation). (4) The indicators of a significant correlation between social isolation and pickpocketing include unemployment (negative correlation), harmonious neighborhood relationships (positive correlation), opinions and suggestions (negative correlation), and the residents' feelings toward the community management services(positive correlation). In general, there are differences in the impact of social isolation with different measurement dimensions on the infringement of urban residents, and this difference varies with the type of infringement. The contribution of this study to the existing literature is reflected in the following two aspects: first, the research framework is optimized, and in the process of the research, community connection, neighborhood connection, building environment, and management service evaluation are added to represent individual emotions, and the influence of these factors on the residents' criminal infringement is discussed. Second, based on the index system of social isolation, this study analyzes the correlation between social isolation and the criminal infringement of residents from the perspective of social network relationship, which is also a supplement to the existing literature.
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