THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL COHESION ON LEVELS OF RECORDED CRIME IN DISADVANTAGED AREAS

This paper investigates the hypothesis that the level of crime in disa dvantaged areas will be influenced by their levels of social cohesion, This issue is examined using two methods for delineating areas of dis advantage (geodemographic classifications and the British government's official deprivation measure, the Index of Local Conditions) and two independent components of social cohesion, one defines the level of 's ocial control' in an area and the other identifies 'ethnic heterogenei ty', The results suggest that levels of crime are significantly lower than expected in disadvantaged areas with high levels of social cohesi on and vice verse, A complementary analysis of Homewatch schemes revea led that such schemes lead to reduced levels of burglary in affluent a reas, but appear to have the opposite effect to that desired in more d isadvantaged areas.