Final answer:
Studies indicate that higher education levels correspond to higher crime rates in communities, and factors like poverty, ethnic heterogeneity, and residential mobility are predictors of crime. Neighborhood stability and homogeneity tend to lead to lower crime rates, supporting that crime varied based on socio-economic factors.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to the extracted texts, studies indicated a strong connection between education and crime. Specifically, one analysis found that higher levels of education in a community correspond to higher crime rates. This might seem counterintuitive, but it aligns with the broader findings of Social Disorganization Theory, which suggests that factors like poverty, ethnic heterogeneity, and residential mobility are the chief indicators of elevated crime rates. Neighborhoods with poor, transient, and heterogeneous populations are less able to exert collective social control, often resulting in higher crime rates. In contrast, wealthier, more stable, and homogenous neighborhoods tend to have lower crime rates due to a shared sense of community and willingness to manage and prevent crime.
The theory posits that the social environment is a critical factor in crime rates, more so than ethnicity or other individual characteristics. This was supported by research showing that crime rates were not directly related to ethnicity, but rather to the socio-economic conditions of neighborhoods. Also, the addition of specific businesses, like payday lenders, has been found to worsen crime rates when neighborhood variables are held constant.
Thus, when looking at the given options, the situation that best aligns with the findings from the texts is that crime rates varied based on socio-economic factors (option c). This is supported by Social Disorganization Theory, which emphasizes the role of a community's stability and composition in influencing crime rates. For instance, crime is most likely to occur in a community where neighbors don't know each other very well, correlating with option a of one sub-question.