key theme in this week’s readings is that perceptions matter. Most of the approa

key theme in this week’s readings is that perceptions matter. Most of the approaches discussed in Chapters 5 and 6 of the textbook argue, in some way, that we should be concerned not just with what we objectively measure in neighborhoods, but also with what the residents think, perceive, and value–how they view things. This can be challenging for quantitative criminologists (which includes most criminologists), because we are accustomed to gathering available empirical data for neighborhoods (e.g. rates of crime, poverty, unemployment, residential mobility, etc.) and then statistically testing for causal relationships among these characteristics. It is more difficult to measure the perceptions and values of neighborhood residents and then test whether these contribute to neighborhood variation in crime rates. The role of perceptions is directly addressed in the chapter on Broken Windows (Chapter 6), but it is not always as clear in the chapter on cultural attenuation (Chapter 5) and in the article by Intravia, et al. (2018).
For this discussion posting, describe two ways in which perceptions and/or values are important for understanding neighborhood crime. One of those ways must be based on Chapter 5 and the other must be based on Chapter 6. Of course, you must also incorporate the research article. Be sure that you explain why perceptions are important based on the readings, not just which perceptions are important.
Some very important things to keep in mind:
Be sure that your post is centered on neighborhood crime, not just individual offending. Obviously neighborhoods are comprised of individuals, so individuals matter for understanding neighborhood crime. However, the central focus of this course, and this area of criminology, is that neighborhoods are relevant for studying crime. In this course, you should always be thinking about how neighborhoods matter as a contextual influence, not just as a collection of all the individuals that live there.
As noted in the syllabus, discussion postings are expected to be about 3-4 paragraphs. Some of you are writing less than this, which typically means you did not include enough depth and substance to fully address the question. On the other hand, many of you are writing far more than this. I appreciate the effort, but I recommend that you try to write more concisely to address the question in closer to 3-4 paragraphs. It is an important skill to master, and these discussion questions are asked in a way that should not require much more than this amount of writing. For example, in this particular question you aren’t asked to give an extensive summary of each chapter. Instead, you just need to explain two ways that perceptions/values matter, and support that with information from the readings.
As I’ve mentioned before, don’t think of this as an essay or a paper. It is a discussion posting–an intellectual, scholarly conversation. Focus less on the formality of the writing and more on responding to the prompt in a thoughtful, critical, informative way. You shouldn’t need to use a thesaurus to answer these questions. Put things in your own words, but still write with good grammar and punctuation, without misspellings, etc.
Last, when citing a source, only include the authors’ last names and the year of publication, in parentheses, at the end of the sentence. It is incorrect to include the title of the source or the full names of the authors in the text of your response (or in an essay, or in a paper, or anywhere else). And keep direct quotes to a minimum. The best responses will have no direct quotes!