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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
This study by Taylor and Covington provided an analysis of the connections between changes in urban neighborhood structure and changes in levels of violence within Baltimore neighborhoods in the 1970s.
METHODOLOGY:
This study involved a secondary data analysis using the 1970 and 1980 census and crime data for urban Baltimore neighborhoods. The two indicators for violence which were used were murder and aggravated assault. Eighteen of the smallest neighborhoods were excluded from the analysis because of questions in reliability. It was discussed that the external validity on this type of study was unknown; the internal validity was strong. The problems which occur when using police records was discussed (only documents reported crimes). Neighborhoods were ranked by their percentile crime scores which took size into account. In order to statistically control for the influences of violence in adjoining neighborhoods, spatial autocorrelation, an ordinary least squares procedure was utilized. In order to statistically measure violence change and ecological change, residual change scores were utilized. Cluster analyses were used to nonheirarchically identify neighborhood types.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
By expanding on both relative deprivation theories and social disintegration theories, this study tested the hypotheses that neighborhoods with increasing "underclasses" will experience more crime and violence and that neighborhoods with increasing gentrification will also experience more violence, crime and conflict. During the 1970s, Baltimore experienced large increases in urban poverty and gentrification. Neighborhood types were clustered depending on their scores on the three ecology dimensions: status (education, house value, poverty, vacant housing), youth/minority population, and stability (family, married versus single, owning vs renting). The potential gentrifying neighborhoods and minority, underclass neighborhoods were selected from the neighborhood grouping clusters. The largest neighborhood group involving stable, white neighborhoods was used as a reference string. At the beginning of the decade, for both murder and aggravated assault, the violence level was linked to the violence level in adjoining neighborhoods. Both emerging "underclass" neighborhoods and emerging "gentrifying" neighborhoods also had high levels of violence at the beginning of the decade. When observing the structural changes in neighborhoods over the decade, it was found that neighborhoods scoring high on the stability component experienced increases in property value and decreases in teen population and unemployment. Neighborhoods scoring high on the minority/youth component had older, nonminority populations being replaced by younger, minority populations. Neighborhoods scoring high on the family status component experienced increases in middle-aged households, married couples, income, house owners. An outlier, or additional ecological influence, was identified for two of the gentrified neighborhoods which involved a city program which sold abandoned houses/buildings for a dollar with the agreement that the buildings would be renovated within a certain time frame. Within neighborhoods which were predicted to become underclass, there were decreases in both status and stability and moderate increases in murder rates. The murder rates appeared to be more closely connected to the stability measure indicating more support for the relative deprivation theory. Unstable, poor, minority neighborhoods appeared to have deceases in status and increases in assault. However, moderate levels of stability within minority, low-income neighborhoods appeared to lower the assault rates. In the gentrifying neighborhoods, stability and status changes were linked to murder changes: increases in stability and status led to increases in murder rates. In these neighborhoods, increases in stability appeared to be more strongly connected to increase in murder rates. A positive relationship existed between increases in both stability and status and increases in aggravated assault. This study concluded that both hypotheses were supported and that both underclass and gentrifying neighborhoods experienced increases in violence. Aspects of both relative deprivation and social disintegration theories were supported.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors stressed the importance of these findings for policymakers. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - 1970s
KW - Maryland
KW - Urban Crime
KW - Urban Violence
KW - Neighborhood
KW - Neighborhood Change
KW - Neighborhood Conditions
KW - Neighborhood Environment
KW - Neighborhood Factors
KW - Neighborhood Organization
KW - Social Organization Theory
KW - Community Crime
KW - Community Violence
KW - Homicide Causes
KW - Physical Assault Causes
KW - Sociocultural Factors
KW - Socioeconomic Factors
KW - Adult Violence
KW - Adult Offender
KW - Juvenile Offender
KW - Juvenile Violence
KW - Violence Causes
KW - Crime Causes |