Criminal Victimization in Contemporary Urban China: A Multi-level Analysis of Survey Data for the City of Tianjin

Suny At Albany, Albany NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project will collect and analyze original survey data on criminal victimization in the city of Tianjin, China. The general objectives are to examine the social patterning of criminal victimization in contemporary urban China and to assess the applicability of Western criminological theories in the distinctive context of a nation undergoing profound economic and social change. Drawing upon routine activities theory, hypotheses about the relationships between status characteristics, life styles, and individual victimization risk are developed and tested. "Neo-social disorganization" theory informs the formulation of hypotheses about the effects of neighborhood characteristics on neighborhood levels of victimization. The survey is based on a multi-stage cluster design, yielding a total sample of 2,500 households nested within a sample of 50 neighborhoods. These data permit hierarchical multi-level modeling to assess the hypotheses about individual risks and neighborhood levels of victimization.