Committee Chair

Dierenfeldt, Rick

Committee Member

Iles, Gale; Walker, Jeff T.; Wang, Xinting; Policastro, Christina

Department

Dept. of Criminal Justice and Legal Assistant Studies

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

This thesis seeks to explore the indirect and direct relationships between food insecurity, concentrated disadvantage, and distribution of violent offenders through the lens of social disorganization. Data gathered by the Little Rock Police Department, American Community Survey, and city business license records are used to test neighborhood-level relationships across Little Rock, Arkansas’ 155 Census block groups. Pearson’s Correlation is used at the bivariate level and negative binomial regression tests multivariate relationships. The results suggest a null relationship between food insecurity and distribution of violent offenders across Little Rock block groups. However, several findings are consistent with prior research and theory– the most salient of which is the impact of concentrated structural disadvantage on the distribution of violent offenders. This thesis contributes original research to the study of food deserts and crime that may be used as a foundation for future studies.

Acknowledgments

The author owes much gratitude for the successful completion of this thesis to Assistant Professor Rick Dierenfeldt, who as chair provided profound guidance, and invested countless hours and expertise. The author owes gratitude to the committee members for their instrumental contributions. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Criminal Justice Department faculty members serving as committee members and advisors include Associate Professor Christina Policastro and Associate Professor Gale Ilse. Together, they contributed their time, expertise and support to the endeavor. Professor Jeff Walker of The University of Alabama at Birmingham contributed subject matter expertise as a member of the committee. Assistant Professor Xinting Wang of Ball State University served as a committee member and contributed data analysis expertise.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2022

Subject

Crime; Economic conditions; Food security; Social structure

Location

Little Rock (Ark.)

Keyword

food desert; crime; social disorganization; food insecurity; concentrated disadvantage; little rock

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

vii, 47 leaves

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

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