| Recent research in communities and crime supports the notion that social disorganization factors such as neighborhood poverty, high residential mobility, family disruption, physical incivilities, and public disorder crimes are related to victimization and fear of crime. In a related area, researchers find correlations between criminal victimization and reported mental health. This paper furthers extends prior research by exploring the relationships among social disorganization, victimization, and mental health. It is hypothesized that social disorganization will conditioning the relationship between reported victimization and reported mental health. This paper uses the responses from a random telephone survey of Illinois residents to compare differences in levels of mental health between residents of socially disorganized neighborhoods and those of socially organized neighborhoods. Implications of these findings are described.
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Updated 05/20/2006