Cities Don't Cause Crime: Urban-Rural Differences in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century German Criminality

Abstract

“Good heavens!” I cried. “Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?”“They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside… But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard's blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.”—Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”

Interpersonal Violence in Chile, c. 1880s–2010s: A Tale of Delayed but Successful Convergence

“…It is unclear whether increasing urbanization leads to higher homicide rates or not, but there is agreement that this variable that must be analyzed(Johnson 1992;Thome 1995).…”

Do Spatial Spillover Effects of Crime Matter in Urbanization and Crime Nexus? (Case Study: Iranian Provinces)

“…On one hand, many researchers argued that anonymity among urban dwellers in cities, high population density and less probability of arrest permit the criminals to commit their crime without any fear of recognition (Braithwaite, 1975;Glaeser and Sacerdote, 1999). On the other hand, others believed that at low levels of urbanization, high crime rates may be observed due to the sparsely located residents in an area; meaning that the increase of the urbanization or the size of the city would lead to the reduction of crime level as the result of closer proximity of the residents (Johnson 1992;Spierenburg;1996, Gaviria andPages, 2002;Eisner, 2003). Therefore, it can be argued that urbanization may have both negative and positive effects on crime rates depending on the status of the different urban settings.…”