Every year earthquakes, hurricanes, and other forms of natural disaster strike communities with often devastating impact and without regard to national boundaries or socioeconomic capacity. Media accounts on television, radio, or in print make vivid the extent of physical damage and the most evident consequences to life and limb. While word spreads with dispatch both nationally and internationally, lead stories change with almost as much dispatch. Often there is mention of crime, altered patterns of victimization, or looting, but the impact of such events on the social fabric of a community is little understood. Dr. Kuhl seeks to respond to this gap in our knowledge by a timely, sustained, and systematic study of social control in three communities affected by the California earthquake. The research focuses on crime, victimization, social service, and social control both prior and subsequent to the earthquake in communities that differ in terms of cultural, economic, and social conditions. Specifically, the study focuses on the hardest hit communities in San Francisco (primarily upper-middle class, Caucasian areas), Oakland (black, lower-class areas), and Watsonville (lower class areas with migrant and illegal migrant Hispanic residents). Multiple methods will be used in the research including agency records, periodicals, crime reports, and in-depth interviews with private individuals as well as with community leaders, agency workers, and public officials. This project will create a unique data set that should be invaluable to understanding how social control systems operate and how patterns of crime and victimization evolve in crisis situations.
