From the Publisher
Parker's theoretical integration is so straightforward and intuitive that it makes one wonder why it took so long for sociologists to consider such an amalgamation. Sociologists interested in the urban economy should seriously consider the ways in which labor market changes stratify racial groups along dimensions of crime and violence. Meanwhile, criminologists would do well to heed Parker's call for a richer and more dynamic theoretical treatment of the economy in their models of changing crime rates."-American Journal of Sociology,
"All of this can be summarized in the following three reasons that Parker's book is important: she begins with a question that deserves an answer, she demonstrates how that question is far more complex than most have thought, and she offers an answer that is theoretically rich."-Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews,
“The crime decline that began in the early 1990s and ran for more than a decade is the largest sustained drop in crime rates ever recorded in the United States—and yet this remarkable event has gone largely unheralded. Parker illuminates this unexplored terrain by shining a light on the unevenness of the decline across key subgroups defined especially by race, gender and class. Her book is required reading for anyone interested in the make up of this fascinating piece of criminology history.”
-Gary LaFree,author of Losing Legitimacy: Street Crime and the Decline of Social Institutions in America
“There has been much speculation as to the source and meaning of the crime drop of the 1990s. Yet, relatively unexamined is whether crime rates declined uniformly across all groups and, if not why not? In this important book, Parker carefully examines homicide trends for different combinations of race and gender specific groups over three decades and convinces us that crime trends are far from uniform. What then accounts for the race and gender disparities in homicide trends? Parker offers more nuanced explanations by exploring how changes in the urban landscape over several decades have differentially affected blacks and whites and males and females. Parker’s book is a significant achievement, merging sophisticated quantitative techniques and analysis with sociological insights about structural changes in our cities that also affect urban crime rates. She has raised important questions about the crime drop and at the same time has provided a number of new directions for future research. This is a provocative and stimulating book which should prompt criminologists to more carefully deconstruct crime patterns and trends by race and gender.”
-Sally S. Simpson,author of Corporate Crime, Law, and Social Control
“Essential.”
-Choice
