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22 J. Res. Crime & Delinquency 3 (1985)

handle is hein.journals/jrcd22 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITOR'S COMMENTS In the November 1984 issue of the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Bernard suggested that criminologists tend to close off old areas of research as new ones open up, rather than fully exploring each. As an example, he argues that strain theories of delinquency-those that explain delinquent behavior in terms of the clash between aspirations and ability to achieve them-seem to be one such area that has been prematurely closed off. Sampson's lead article in this edition of the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency demonstrates that interest in strain theories has not evaporated entirely. He examines the effect of neighborhood characteristics on rates of personal victimization through the use of National Crime Survey data. Specifically, he tests various contemporary explanations of crime, particularly those relating to urban violent crime. Sampson chose, for example, a study by Blau and Blau that found income equality to be a primary determinant of variation in rates of urban violent crime-a finding typically advanced as supporting strain theorists. Another study is by Crutchfield et al., who found that such important dimensions as community social integration play an impor- tant role in explaining the rates of crime. These types of relationships, of course, are typically associated with so-called control theories. Sampson undertakes to study the independent effects of poverty, equality, racial composition, mobility, structural density, and family structure on rates of personal victimization. He finds that social integration factors (family structure, mobility) and structural density generally have the strongest effects on personal crime victimization; he concludes that although economic and racial factors cannot be ignored, their influence is limited, and perhaps not as ubiquitous as traditional crimonological theory would have us believe. However, at the end he leaves a suggestion that there is room for varying interpretations regarding the role of inequality and racial composition. Thus, although Sampson's study lends further credence to control theories, it continues to open the possibility that theories dealing with inequality may still have significant bearing on delinquency. We are left with the inevitable conclusion that further refinement of theoretical constructs is needed before we can more fully account for the variety of behavior described as delinquent. 3 from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved.

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