Item – Theses Canada

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OCLC number
745899045
Link(s) to full text
LAC copy
LAC copy
Author
Thompson, Sara K.,1971-
Title
The social ecology and spatial distribution of lethal violence in Toronto, 1988-2003.
Degree
Ph. D. -- University of Toronto, 2009
Publisher
Ottawa : Library and Archives Canada = Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, [2010]
Description
3 microfiches
Notes
Includes bibliographical references.
Abstract
This dissertation examines the ways in which neighbourhood demographic; socioeconomic and housing characteristics are related to the risk of homicide in Toronto over the period 1988-2003. This study expands on recent studies of the social ecology of lethal violence in three important ways. First, it provides the first empirical examination of this topic in a large Canadian city, which offers an opportunity to determine the extent to which the ecological covariates of lethal violence identified in the U.S. based literature also predict this violence in the Canadian context. Second, while this dissertation examines total homicide counts, it is also one of a small number of studies that disaggregates these counts into subtypes, in an effort to determine the extent to which the ecological correlates of one type of homicide are specific to, or distinct from, those of another. Finally, this study provides a more nuanced and contextualized analysis of 'neighbourhood effects' and homicide than has been possible with either cross-sectional analyses of neighbourhoods in one city or longitudinal analyses of multiple cities. Spatial analytic methodologies show that, as is the case south of the border, high levels of lethal violence tend to cluster in a small number of inner-city neighbourhoods in Toronto. However, unlike the spatial distribution of homicide in many U.S. cities, this violence also tends to cluster in neighbourhoods outside of the city core. The results of traditional multivariate methodologies show that some of the neighbourhood characteristics included in the multivariate analyses are related to some types of homicide in Toronto, but not to others. Neighbourhoods characterized by economic disadvantage and larger proportions of young male and black residents experienced higher levels of homicide, particularly homicides with young black male victims. This suggests that these types of homicide might be better seen as the result of a similar neighbourhood context. At the same time, however, the differences that emerged in the neighbourhood characteristics associated with different homicide types lend some support to the idea that, to a certain extent, some types of homicide in Toronto may be influenced by distinctive causal factors.
ISBN
9780494556849
0494556846