Does Changing Ownership Change Crime? An Analysis of Apartment Ownership and Crime in Cincinnati
Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Crime at multi-family dwellings is an ongoing concern.Using concepts from environmental criminology, this dissertation adapts Madensen's (2007) model of bar place management to apartments.One aspect of this model, the relationship between ownership change of an apartment building and crime, is examined.I found that while about half of apartments change ownership during the period 2002-2009, serial ownership change is rare.Crime is heavily concentrated among apartments, with over half of crime occurring at just 10% of apartments -and these extreme values of crime tend to drive the multivariate analysis.Ownership change and crime are associated with each other in a feedback system.Ownership change is more likely at apartments with a history of past crime, and ownership change is associated with a 10% increase in future crime counts.Neighborhood context has a complex relationship with significant variation between neighborhoods in both crime counts and in the relationship between ownership change and crime.In some neighborhoods, ownership change and crime are positively related; in other neighborhoods, the relationship is negative.Even though my findings are sensitive to extreme values, methodology and model selection decisions, it is apparent that ownership change could be an important intervention point for crime prevention.Interventions such as landlord training should be targeted at high crime apartments which change ownership, while recognizing that the overwhelming majority of apartments and apartment owners have zero crime.Any errors of omission or commission in this dissertation are mine alone -and they would have been much more numerous without the input of others.First among these is my wife, Carrie Payne.Without Carrie, my academic career simply would not be possible.This work, and any other work I produce from here forward, simply could not have existed without her support over the past decade or so.I owe her more than I can say.My fellow students at the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati were also helpful.Specifically, Heidi Scherer provided key insights that enabled me to break through multiple mental blocks during the analysis.Her willingness to provide commentary via text, instant message, email, and phone was incredible.I suspect she will need less help than I did on her dissertation, but I stand ready to repay that debt. John Campbell'
Author: Troy C. Payne
Institution: University of Cincinnati
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2278302290