Crime

Written By Dan O'Brien

Problem Properties and their Communities

Bowdoin-Geneva in Boston is a “high-crime neighborhood”, but few addresses and streets produce any issues

We often think about crime in terms of “high-crime neighborhoods,” but even in those communities most addresses. My research on crime focuses on how the few “problem properties” interact with their streets and neighborhoods, helping us to better understand where and why crime tends to concentrate across the city. This is best captured by a collaboration with the City of Boston’s Problem Properties Task Force funded by the National Science Foundation’s Law & Social Science program. Also, earlier in my career I examined the role of disorder—i.e., dilapidation and subcriminal activities like panhandling—in neighborhoods, finding that the highly-influential “broken windows theory,” which argues that such elements encourage serious crime, is untrue.

Publications on Problem Properties (students in bold)

  • O’Brien, D.T., Ciomek, A. Whence the action? The persistence and aggravation of violent crime at addresses, streets, and neighborhoods. In press at Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency.

  • O’Brien, D.T., Ristea, A., Hangen, F., Tucker, R. Different Places, Different Problems: Profiles of Crime and Disorder at Residential Parcels. In press at Crime Science.

  • O’Brien, D.T., Ristea, A., Tucker, R., Hangen, F. The emergence and evolution of problematic properties: onset, persistence, aggravation, and desistance. In press at Journal of Quantitative Criminology. 10.1007/s10940-022-09542.

  • O'Brien, D.T., Ciomek, A., Tucker, R. How and why is crime more concentrated in some neighborhoods than others?: A new dimension in community crime. In press at Journal of Quantitative Criminology. 10.1007/s10940-021-09495-9.

  • Ke, L., O’Brien, D.T., Heydari, B. 2021. Airbnb and neighborhood crime: The incursion of tourists or the erosion of local social dynamics? Public Library of Science. 16: e0253315.

  • Tucker, R., O'Brien, D.T., Ciomek, A., Castro, E., Wang, Q., Phillips, N.E. 2021. Who 'tweets' where and when, and how does it help understand crime rates at places? Measuring the presence of tourists and commuters in ambient populations. Journal of Quantitative Criminology. 37: 333-359.

  • O’Brien, D.T. 2019. The action is everywhere, but greater at more localized spatial scales: Comparing concentrations of crime across addresses, streets, and neighborhoods. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. 56: 339-377.

  • O’Brien, D.T. & Winship, C. 2017. The gains of greater granularity? The presence and persistence of problem properties in urban neighborhoods. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 33, 649-674.

Publications on “Broken Windows” (students in bold)

  • O’Brien, D.T., Farrell, C. & Welsh, B. 2019. Looking through ‘broken windows:’ The impact of neighborhood disorder on aggression and fear of crime is an artifact of research design. Annual Review of Criminology. 2: 53-71.

  • O’Brien, D.T., Sampson, R.J. 2015. Public and Private Spheres of Neighborhood Disorder: Assessing Pathways to Violence Using Large-Scale Digital Records. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 52: 486-510.

  • O’Brien, D.T., Sampson, R.J., Winship, C. 2015. Ecometrics in the age of big data: Measuring and assessing “broken windows” using administrative records. Sociological Methodology, 45: 101-147.

  • O’Brien, D.T., Norton, C., Cohen, J., Wilson, D.S. 2014. Cultural variation in community perception: Local adaptation and the interpretation of disorder. Environment and Behavior, 46: 213-240.

  • O’Brien, D.T., Kauffman, R. 2013. Broken windows and low adolescent prosociality: Not cause and consequence, but co-symptoms of low collective efficacy.  American Journal of Community Psychology, 51: 359-369.

  • O’Brien, D.T., Wilson, D.S. 2011. Community Perception: The ability to assess the safety of unfamiliar neighborhoods and respond adaptively. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100: 606-620.

Grants

  • National Science Foundation Law and Social Science program. Support for a proposal titled, “Catching up the Science of Problem Properties: The Microspatial Dynamics of Crime, Disorder, and Property Management.” $300,663. 2019-2021. PI.

Dan O'Brien
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