Crime and the Restructuring of the U.S. Economy: A Reconsideration of the Class Linkages

Abstract

Researchers have speculated that dislocations in the class structure produced by recent economic restructuring are responsible for a variety of social problems, including crime. However, attempts to demonstrate a causal link between restructuring and crime have been only partially successful. We attribute the lack of progress in this area to the narrow focus on the impact of unemployment, the neglect of meso-level class structures, and the failure to conceptualize and empirically model the temporal and spatial dimensions of restructuring. This article extends contributions from the historical perspective on social structures of accumulation and collective-action frame theory to provide a more complete understanding of the class linkages between economic restructuring and crime. Hypotheses derived from these two models are tested with a pooled, cross-sectional, time-series analysis of the state-level determinants of violent-crime, property-crime, and total crime rates. Results indicate that when properly examined cross time and space, unemployment has its expected positive impact on total crime rate and property-crime rate. Findings also suggest that net of the effects of unemployment and traditional predictors, class factors operating at the mesolevel (employer tactics and labor organization) influence property-crime and total crime rates by framing perceptions of class adversaries and agency.