| This dissertation examines the mass politics of violent crime in America from the mid 1960's to the present, focusing in particular on how the politics of crime relate to actual patterns of violent crime at various levels of aggregation. The mass politics of violent crime refers to the interrelations between patterns of violent crime and personal victimization, individual fear of crime, individual attitudes regarding crime and crime control, the role of crime in elections and voting behavior, and elite decision-making with respect to crime control policies. More succinctly, it refers to the way crime affects individuals differently, the way individuals react to patterns of crime and victimization, and the way individuals' orientations toward crime are aggregated and incorporated into the representational process. In addition to integrating research on each of the aforementioned substantive dimensions and employing innovative theories, methods and rigorous empirical analyses, this dissertation focuses on how the results of these investigations collectively paint a larger portrait of the politics of violent crime as a process; a portrait which exposes tensions within democratic theory and suggests a variety of practical concerns about the making of crime control policy in America. |
