Making Methamphetamine

In many parts of the U.S. methamphetamine production remains a serious problem despite efforts to restrict access to precursor chemicals. Methamphetamine laboratories are a particular issue in rural areas, where many essential chemicals are available and where a lower population density means that noxious fumes are less likely to be noticed. This paper shows how the problem emerged and changed over time and includes: Early production in the U.S., the spread of meth production, the process of making meth, precursor control efforts, superlabs versus small local operations, health risks, contaminated lab sites, and children found in methamphetamine lab sites

A review of What You Are Getting Wrong about Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte

No abstract available

Explaining Crime in Metropolitan and Non-Metropolitan Communities

Traditional urban theories of community crime development increasingly are being adapted and evaluated for their relevance to the crime problems of smaller and less urban settings. Most notable of these have been social disorganization theory and civic community theory. This paper compares these two major theoretical frameworks for explaining community-level variations in crime, using county-level data on crime rates merged with data on the economic, geographic, population, and ecological features of counties in the U.S. The study finds that both traditional social disorganization and civic community theories are good predictors of some, but not all, types of crime, in the largest metropolitan areas. However, their predictive power declines substantially when applied to the most rural communities

Socially Disorganized Rural Communities

The article talks about the social disorganization of rural communities in the U.S. It is stated that family farming has been on the decline for decades, with the numbers of farmers dropping by 16 million since 1950 and farms decreasing by over 4 million during the past century. It is inferred that a part of a community\u27s history and way of life are being forfeited when local business are closing. According to the author, the theory of social disorganization emphasizes social integration and stability as necessary conditions for community. It offers some of the disadvantages of disorganized communities, such as the lack of collective efficacy