Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: According to social disorganization theory, crime will flourish in areas with high residential mobility, low socioeconomic status, and high racial heterogeneity. This study provides a test for the basic social disorganization model as well as Sampson’s addition of family disruption for violent and property crime. It also considers the impact of crime in adjacent areas under the assumption that neighborhood forces do not operate within a vacuum. Using data from seventy-six neighborhoods bounded by cultural and historical lines in St. Louis, three analyses reveal measures of social disorganization differentially affect property and violent crime. Property crime is highest in areas with high mobility and high racial heterogeneity. Violent crime is highest in areas with high mobility, low socioeconomic status, high family disruption, and low crime rates in adjacent areas. These findings indicate a need for crime-specific models of social disorganization and further exploration of external crime effects.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Throughout North America, moving picture shows first appeared and proliferated in the first decade of the twentieth century. The content of the shows was nearly identical across the continent, combining mass-produced and mass-distributed short films and illustrated songs. Early five-cent shows were seen as an obviously modern amusement, founded upon technology and electricity. The social and commercial context of profit-seeking showmanship was seen as a threat to the local domains of religious and family life, prompting calls for stricter regulation. In general, modern innovations in bureaucratic governance matched the modern character of the novelty amusement. The impulse to regulate picture shows in Newfoundland took a relatively parochial form, however, informal and largely without new legislation. The movies thus allow a concise synopsis of how civic governance in St. John’s balanced modern influences with a parochialism that was perhaps singular within North America. This calls into question the character of St. John’s metropolitan relationship to the rest of Newfoundland. Indeed, the case of film regulation illustrates that many requirements of urban governance were able to remain unlegislated, and thus not formally apply throughout the colony.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Euler had three goals when he returned to St. Petersburg in 1766. He wanted to finish his comprehensive study of mechanics, to give the Academy an inventory of articles that could fill the pages of their journals for twenty years after his death, and to train a new generation of scholars as a legacy to sustain the Academy. He was successful in two out of these three goals. We describe his progress towards these goals agains the backdrop of Russian history, Academy politics and episodes in Euler's life.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: One of the long-standing questions in urban services research is: What
determines bureaucratic response – formal rules, or politics? Why does trash get
picked up faster in certain neighborhoods than in others? Why do some
neighborhoods have an autumn leaf pick-up service while others do not? I assert
that both formal rules and political factors matter, when bureaucrats have
discretion. The quality and quantity of service delivery in urban areas has both
political and economic determinants. By presenting a generalized case study and
some preliminary data for the City of St. Louis, I show that service delivery varies
within the central city. Among the determinants of this variation are race,
economic status, and political influence.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Neighborhood research on violent crime consistently finds that high-crime areas tend to cluster together. Additionally, recent studies suggest that a sizeable portion of the longitudinal variation in city crime rates may be attributable to fluctuations in a small number of high-crime areas. Variations in drug markets, gang activity, and firearm availability have been cited as strong correlates of rapid changes in violent crime. Yet, relatively little longitudinal research has examined the spatial clustering of violent crime. Therefore, additional empirical study is needed to understand the relationship between community changes and crime trends. This study examines the spatial dependence of neighborhood-level homicide trends, controlling for changes in neighborhood structural features. Hierarchical linear modeling is combined with exploratory spatial data analysis and spatial regression methods to examine homicide trends in St. Louis neighborhoods between 1980 and 2000.