COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION AGAINST URBAN-CRIME - GUIDING ORIENTATIONS ANDSTRATEGIC CHOICES IN GRASS-ROOTS POLITICS

Periodically, crime becomes a prominent issue in the politics of citie s. In the past, politicians, police officials, and the media elevated crime to public and political agenda status for their own purposes. In creasingly, however, grassroots activists are raising crime as an issu e and are organizing to cope with it in their communities. The type an d posture of these organizations differ significantly. The postures th at anticrime activists adopt are largely decided by their perspectives toward (1) the legitimacy of governmental authority and (2) their sen se of efficacy. These guiding orientations lead activists to fall into four basic categories that are labeled Negotiational, Adversarial, De legational, and Alienated.