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Many studies based in Chicago tried testing for free of violent crime neighborhoods and their relationship to the Italian mob as these neighborhoods are usually safer than others even though when taking into account the presence of these criminal organizations. The study will focus on whether or not the reputation of these neighborhoods (defended neighborhoods) has anything to do with crime levels within it.
Informal social control is a key factor in maintaining low crime rates within neighborhoods side by side with ethnic concentration within a specific area because of similar cultural influences and strong community ties. Many of these low crime neighborhoods owe this to the presence of organized crime groups such as gangs and drug dealers which is seen as intriguing since one would think that the presence of these groups would cause an opposite effect in the neighborhood. Nevertheless, a reasonable explanation for this type of effect would be that of defended neighborhoods, where members of this criminal organizations kind of protect their communities by the use of fear and their reputation, meaning that they will prevent criminal acts from occurring within their neighborhoods if it affects them and their “business” directly. This will let others know what they are getting into if they choose to mess with any of these neighborhoods (protecting their turf). This is the case of the Italian mob and their very well-known reputation for retaliating against anyone who didn’t mind their own business and decided to intervene in theirs. This rumor led to the behavior of people from other communities being affected and knowing not to mess with Italian Americans in general.
The hypothesis tested for this study will be that neighborhoods with a high presence of Italian and other white ethnic groups result in lower crime rates when compared to other neighborhoods in the city of Chicago; robbery being the main measure for crime in these areas. The study will have independent variables such as Italian ancestry, ethnic concentration, neighborhood characteristics, socioeconomic indicators, as well as other measures such as mobility, population density and population below the age of 18.
Data for this study comes from the US Census American Community Survey averages for 2006 to 2010 (demographic and socioeconomic factors), and Chicago’s Police Department reported crime data from 2010 to 2011. The units of analyses are Chicago census tracts and the listed neighborhoods. There are 786 census tracts and 220 neighborhoods in this study with an average of 2,500 to 8,000 people as population. The average population for a census tract was 3,406, with each tract having 40 robberies while the average population per Chicago neighborhood was 7,705, each experiencing about 100 robberies; about 1/5 of the population in this tracts and neighborhoods are foreign-born and 1/10 White ethnic with small concentration of Italians; Nearly half of any census and neighborhoods will either be homeowners or identify as Black. The same goes for over half of the population being educated through high school and beyond, and about 1/5 being female headed for both census tracts and neighborhoods. Results show a negative relationship between Italian Americans and robbery, as a 1% increase in Italian Americans and White ethnic groups would then decease likelihood of a robbery by .96. This result supports the study’s hypothesis on whether or not Italian presence would affect crime rates in the area/neighborhood as well as the presence of other White ethnic groups and not only Italians.
The increase in the percentage of Italian and white ethnic groups within neighborhoods in Chicago are significantly related to lower crime (robbery) rates. It is hard to say whether or not this result is solely based on the presence of the Italian mob, but we can assume the result to be based on the reputation the Italian mob might have had on these neighborhoods even after they are gone as reputations tend to stick for long periods of time. These reputations are what help these neighborhoods to have low crime rates since no one wants to get on the mobs bad side. Nevertheless, the presence of large white ethnic groups within a community also show low levels of crime, which support the idea of people with similar cultural backgrounds and interest as the means to keep social control and maintain a desired community reputation within their neighborhoods.
Even though no other studies had quantitatively tested for this, neighborhoods where Italian ancestry is common seem to work as predictors for low crime in Chicago neighborhoods. However, we cannot generalize that Italian American presence in neighborhoods equals that of lower crime levels but rather the reputation of these communities which served to deter criminal acts. Because of this it is more likely that the presence of organized crime such as the Italian mob are the true deterrents rather than being Italian. However, there is a lack of quantitative proof in order to make any solid conclusions, making the Italian mob a limitation to the study. The existing positive and negative relationship between the Italian mob and low crime rates should still be discussed in future studies.
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