Order born of chaos? The capacity for informal social control in disempowered and 'disorganised' neighbourhoods

Policy discourse and interventions relating to disorder perceive a lack of organisational capacity to deal with these problems in high-crime and deprived areas. This article draws on research looking at the relative propensities to deal with disorder within deprived and affluent neighbourhoods. We find that deprived areas may be characterised as chaotic and disorganised but also that residents in these areas appear more likely to intervene in acts of disorder. Nevertheless, residents in all neighbourhoods did not want to engage directly with local crime problems. This challenges current policy with its aim of empowering communities to deal with crime, and appears to burden rather than empower residents.