Racial Residential Segregation and Crime

Racial residential segregation is a pervasive and persistent feature of life in urban America. The consequences of segregation are numerous and are generally deleterious for minority populations. One consequence of segregation is inflated rates of crime in segregated areas. However, the study of segregation and crime is limited to a handful of studies and many questions remain unanswered. These include: (i) Does the criminogenic effect of segregation remain when research employs a unit of analysis other than cities (e.g., neighborhoods, regions)? (ii) What is the primary theoretical mechanism by which racial segregation produces crime? (iii) What types of mediating processes can attenuate the criminogenic effect of segregation? The current article will summarize the interdisciplinary literature on segregation and crime and discuss avenues for future research.     

Nonmetropolitan Residential Segregation Revisited

Abstract Nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) residential segregation in 1990 and change in the preceding decade have received insufficient attention. A set of empirical hypotheses are derived and assessed using nonmetro and metropolitan (metro) counties in Texas. Places in nonmetro counties were more segregated than places in metro counties in 1990 as in 1980. Substantial declines in segregation occurred in both nonmetro and metro places but were largest in growing places in nonmetro counties. An analysis controlling for other determinants of segregation supports the premise that population change was a major determinant of 1980–1990 change in segregation. Implications for nonmetro areas in the 1990s are discussed.     

Racial Residential Segregation,Perceived Neighborhood Conditions,and Self-Rated Health: The Case of Houston,Texas

Previous research has linked racial residential segregation to a number of poor health outcomes. Yet, the mechanisms that could account for this association remain poorly understood and have seldom been empirically tested in the literature. In an analysis of the Houston area, we test one potential mechanism—perceived neighborhood conditions, as measured by two indices for neighborhood disorder and environmental quality. Using individual-level health data from a survey of Houston residents and neighborhood-level sociodemographic data from the U.S. Census, we estimate a series of multilevel models. We find that black and Latino segregation are linked to the perceived neighborhood disorder index, but no such relationship for the environmental quality index. Moreover, we find that both indices are related to poor self-rated health in that residents who evaluate their neighborhood conditions negatively are more likely to evaluate their health as poor. We also find a direct effect of black and Latino segregation on poor self-rated health, and that perceived neighborhood disorder partially mediates this relationship. We do not find a mediation effect for environmental quality. The results suggest that in order to improve the health of these communities, both residential segregation and neighborhood conditions need to be addressed.     

Local Gatekeeping Practices and Residential Segregation*

This article links the statistical data on residential segregation with the informal practices of individuals. Local gatekeeping practices contribute to the perpetuation of segregation and further explain the patterns of macro-level analyses. This research focuses on the community of Greenpoint, a predominantly white, working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn. The study describes the strategies used by residents of Greenpoint to accomplish residential segregation and to maintain a predominantly white non-Hispanic neighborhood. The process of informal housing networking is supported by the arrangements of local institutions.     

Racial Residential Segregation in Urban America

There are numerous causes and consequences of racial residential segregation in American metropolitan areas, and a long-standing literature is filled with debates about them. We provide an overview of the trends and patterns regarding racial residential segregation, focusing primarily on blacks and whites. We pay special attention to the competing arguments about race and class in the context of residential stratification. We then discuss the many causes of residential segregation, and its social and economic consequences. After the overview, we identify key gaps in the literature. We discuss three broad substantive areas of research that expand the study of racial residential segregation: (i) the everyday experiences of race, class, and gender disadvantage as they are related to segregation; (ii) contemporary immigration streams and their impact on black-white residential dynamics; and (iii) the power of political-economic forces to transform residentially segregated spaces, with a particular emphasis on processes related to gentrification and home mortgage lending.     

Neighborhood Reactions Toward Facilities for Residential Care

Abstract

Although a substantial body of research on community hostility towards the establishment of human services facilities now exists, researchers as well as community practitioners have identified a need for a more naturalistic and systematic approach to the issue. As a step in that direction, this paper focuses on a nationally representative sample of facilities for residential care in Sweden, with the objective of identifying patterns of hostile NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) reactions and institutional as well as community predictive factors. Approximately 16 percent of these facilities studied experienced NIMBY reactions. In contradiction to many previous studies, which try to explain the neighborhood reactions in terms of attitudes towards special client groups, the findings of this study indicate that the characteristics of the facility itself and of the community in which it is placed seem to be the most significant factors. The study suggests that there is also significant community support for the facilities and that interaction with the community can provide the facilities with positive resources.     

Ethnic Segregation,Tipping Behavior,and Native Residential Mobility

We study tipping behavior in residential mobility of the native population in Sweden between 1990 and 2007. Using regression discontinuity methods, we find that the native population growth in a neighborhood discontinuously drops once the share of non‐European immigrants exceeds the identified tipping point. Native tipping behavior can be ascribed to both native flight and native avoidance. Natives with a high level of educational attainment and the highest labor earnings are more likely to move from neighborhoods that have tipped. We conclude that tipping behavior is likely to be associated with ethnic as well as to socio‐economic segregation in Sweden.     

African American Digital Practices: Mobile E-Health and Residential Segregation

We ask two questions about the relationship between race, using mobile phones for e-health, and living in segregated neighborhoods: Are racial differences associated with using mobile phones for e-health, especially as they relate to African Americans? Is living in segregated neighborhoods associated with changes in mobile phone usage? We merge the National Trends Survey (HINTS) conducted by the National Cancer Institute, for information on e-health, and the US 2010 project, for the necessary measures of residential segregation. Multilevel models (Level 1 N = 2,023, Level 2 N = 183) produced two major conclusions. First, African Americans exhibit unique “digital practices” vis-à-vis e-health, such that they use e-health to share personal diagnostic information less than whites but use e-health for more practical, logistical uses than do whites. Second, residential segregation is associated with digital practices; however, considering racial differences in where people live does not reduce racial differences in e-health patterns.     

西方居住隔离理论:发展历程与现实启示

自恩格斯首次揭示不同群体的居住隔离状态以来,西方社会学经济学等相关学科先后形成了三种不同取向的居住隔离理论,即强调不同人群空间分离的人文区位学居住分异理论,强调住宅更替规律的住房过滤理论,以及强调住宅阶级的新都市社会学居住隔离理论。这些理论共同提醒人们,在当代中国的城镇发展和住房建设中,必须有效预防居住空间隔离,阻止不同社会群体和阶层之间的隔离和对抗。     

Institutional Access,Residential Segregation,and Urban Black Homicide*

Sociologists have frequently cited the importance of the local institutional base for bolstering social organization and control, and ultimately reducing crime rates. Local noneconomic institutions may be particularly relevant to controlling urban Black crime rates, because in the face of limited access to the legitimate labor force, access to institutions such as churches and civic organizations helps to extend social networks, increase civic engagement, transmit mainstream norms, and provide a forum from which to address community problems. This analysis examines the links between measures of access to such noneconomic institutions and Black homicide rates for a sample of large urban areas circa 1990. The results indicate that after controlling for socioeconomic disadvantage, racial inequality and various other relevant measures, institutional access is negatively associated with Black homicide rates. However, this violence constraining impact appears to be most dramatic in urban areas where Blacks are most highly segregated from Whites. Implications of these results are discussed.     

Residential Segregation and the Electoral Participation of Immigrants in Australia1

This paper investigates whether immigrants in Australia residing in situations of residential segregation (federal constituencies with high concentrations of immigrants) participate more in electoral politics than other immigrants. The results indicate that immigrants participate more when living in federal constituencies with high concentrations of immigrants and also exhibit greater homogeneity in their partisan preferences. The analysis also indicates that the impact of residential segregation is primarily observed among immigrants from non‐English‐speaking countries. Immigrants from visible minority background, such as those from South East Asia as well as those from Southern and South Eastern Europe, tend to be more strongly affected by the ethnic composition of their constituencies than other immigrants such as those from the United Kingdom and Ireland.     

Residential Segregation and Institutional Completeness: A Comparison of Ethnic Minorities*

Cette étude de six groupes ethniques à Winnipeg démontre clairement l'importance de la ségrègation residentielle pour le maintien d'un degré de totalité d'un système institutionnel. La communauté francophone se maintient en suivant le modèle que Joy décrit comme s'appliquant au Québec, à savoir celui d'une zone centrale s'étendant dans la région qui l'encercle et se caracterisant par une mobilite intra-régionale considérable. Par ailleurs, les Scandinaves n'ont jamais réussi àétablir une base institutionnelle assez complète dans une zone écologique à part. Ils se sont alors dispersés comme l'auraient prédit les assimilationistes. Contrairement à la prédiction de Joy, la formation de deux communautés juives ségrégées a suivi la mobilité massive de Juifs vers les régions s'étendant dans les banlieues de West Kildonan et River Heights où ils ont établi un nouveau système d'institutions ethniques, abandonnant presque complétement la zone du North End où se trouvait le centre initial de la communauté juive. The importance of residential segregation for the maintenance of institutional completeness is clearly demonstrated by this study of six ethnic groups in Winnipeg. The French community maintainers follow Joy's Quebec core area pattern in St Boniface with extensions of their ethnic belt adjacent to the core and extensive intra-area mobility. On the other hand, the Scandinavians were never able to establish a very complete ethnic institutional base in a segregated ecological area, so they scattered as assimilationists would predict. Contrary to Joy's prediction, extensive Jewish mobility into their West Kildonan and River Heights suburban extended belt areas resulted in the establishment of two new segregated Jewish communities where they have created new complexes of ethnic institutions, leaving the original North End Jewish core area almost entirely.     

Members Only: Gated Communities and Residential Segregation in the Metropolitan United States1

Using the American Housing Survey for 2001 and Census 2000, I examine the link between gated communities and residential segregation. I hypothesize that gating and segregation are defined by similar mechanisms, thus reinforcing urban inequality in U.S. cities. The results, however, indicate a more complex relationship. On the one hand, there are common mechanisms behind the two processes: the pursuit of higher property values, fear of crime, and fear of increased social heterogeneity. An increase in percent recent immigrants leads to higher levels of both segregation and gating. On the other hand, factors such as region, percent black, percent Hispanic, percent college graduates, and functional specialization affect the two processes differentially. Although segregation is less pronounced and declining in the U.S. urban Southwest, gated communities are much more prominent there. The results challenge the notion that the declines in residential segregation in recent decades indicate social progress.     

Emerging Patterns of Hispanic Residential Segregation: Lessons from Rural and Small‐Town America

The past two decades have ushered in a period of widespread spatial diffusion of Hispanics well beyond traditional metropolitan gateways. This article examines emerging patterns of racial and ethnic residential segregation in new Hispanic destinations over the 1990–2010 period, linking county, place, and block data from the 1990, 2000, and 2010 decennial censuses. Our multiscalar analyses of segregation are framed by classical models of immigrant assimilation and alternative models of place stratification. We ask whether Hispanics are integrating spatially with the native population and whether recent demographic and economic processes have eroded or perpetuated racial boundaries in nonmetropolitan areas. We show that Hispanic residential segregation from whites is often exceptionally high and declining slowly in rural counties and communities. New Hispanic destinations, on average, have higher Hispanic segregation levels than established gateway communities. The results also highlight microscale segregation patterns within rural places and in the open countryside (i.e., outside places), a result that is consistent with emerging patterns of “white flight.” Observed estimates of Hispanic‐white segregation across fast‐growing nonmetropolitan counties often hide substantial heterogeneity in residential segregation. Divergent patterns of rural segregation reflect local‐area differences in population dynamics, economic inequality, and the county employment base (using Economic Research Service functional specialization codes). Illustrative maps of Hispanic boom counties highlight spatially uneven patterns of racial diversity. They also provide an empirical basis for our multivariate analyses, which show that divergent patterns of local‐area segregation often reflect spatial variation in employment across different industrial sectors.     

Residential Segregation on the Island: The Role of Race and Class in Puerto Rican Neighborhoods

In this paper, we use racial data from Census 2000, available for the first time in 50 years, to examine the links among race, socioeconomic status, and residential location on the island of Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans overwhelmingly chose white as their race, and they chose only one race, not a combination of races that would seem more in keeping with the ideology of mestizaje. Overall, segregation by race is modest compared with residential segregation in the United States. In keeping with the Puerto Rican claim that class is more important than race, we find that segregation by race is generally lower than segregation between the lowest and highest income categories in all metro areas, but that the results for education and occupational status differ by metropolitan area. In San Juan-Bayamón, the most diverse metropolitan area on the island, we find that as percent black increases, neighborhood socioeconomic status decreases, though the changes are not that stark, except in Loiza, a community of black Puerto Ricans and in some Dominican neighborhoods, though there are relatively few of these neighborhoods.     

Residential Segregation by Race and the Black Merchants of Northern Cities During the Early Twentieth Century

During the early 20th century, many Blacks in northern cities entered the retail trade, supposedly because residential segregation was advantageous to Black merchants. Building upon historical studies of Blacks in the urban North and upon the sociological literature on Black business enterprise, I use census data to analyze the relationship between (1) the spatial isolation of Blacks and (2) the representation of Blacks in the retail trade. I find that between 1900 and 1930 the association between these two variables became significantly positive. This finding corroborates historical case studies, and I conclude that after segregated Black communities emerged in northern cities at the end of the study period, spatial isolation did increase the participation of Blacks in the retail trade.     

Housing in Old Age: Dynamical Interactions Between Neighborhood Attachment,Neighbor Annoyance,and Residential Satisfaction

Objective: Residential satisfaction and neighborhood quality play major roles in aging well. However, longitudinal research about the interplay between such factors is still sparse. Our 1-year study examined whether change in residential satisfaction was associated with change in two indicators of neighborhood quality: neighborhood attachment and neighbor annoyance.

Methods: Findings come from a longitudinal study with 85 community-dwelling German older adults (age range: 60 to 92 years). Participants filled out questionnaires at two measurements that were 1 year apart. The interplay between residential satisfaction and neighborhood was explored using a cross-path model.

Results: Higher levels of residential satisfaction predicted enhanced attachment and reduced annoyance over time. Moreover, attachment predicted positive change in residential satisfaction over the course of 1 year.

Conclusion: Results suggest that older adults may apply adaptive behaviors and strategies to optimize their neighborly experiences. Such findings have implications for improving residential satisfaction in community-dwelling older adults.     

Indexes of Racial Residential Segregation for 109 Cities in the United States, 1940 to 1970

Abstract

An index of racial residential segregation for a city may be calculated from census data reporting the number of white and nonwhite households resident in each city block. Such an index summarizes the dissimilarity in residential location of the two groups. Segregation indexes for 109 cities for the years 1940, 1950, and 1960 were published in Taeuber and Taeuber Negroes in Cities (1965).

Segregation indexes for 109 cities for 1970, together with the previously published indexes for the three earlier census dates, are presented in Table 1. The trend data from 1940 through 1970 refer to residential segregation of whites and nonwhites. For 1970 only, segregation indexes are also presented comparing whites and Negroes.

The trend data reveal a distinctive pattern of change during each of the three decades. From 1960 to 1970, declines in segregation prevailed among cities in each region of the country.

The indexes for 1970 were calculated from Public Use Summary Tapes issued by the Bureau of the Census. Certain difficulties were encountered in the use of these tapes. A methodological appendix describes the data source and retrieval procedure for calculation of city segregation indexes for 1970.     

Migration,Religion, and Residential Segregation at the Urban Level: The Case of Muslim Migrants in Rome and Milan

This article investigates residential segregation at the intraurban level of migrants in two Italian cities, Rome and Milan, considering religion as a point of reference in light of its pivotal role in terms of identity references for many migrants. The article focuses in particular on Muslim migrants—due to both the magnitude of their presence and complex issues related to their settlement in Italian cities. The analysis shows a low level of intraurban residential segregation of Muslim migrants in both cities, with some relevant differences related to national subgroups (e.g., a higher concentration for people coming from Bangladesh and Pakistan), so that religion seems not yet to be a main driver of residential choice for Muslim migrants. In light of both the low level of segregation of Muslim migrants and some features of Italian urban policies on migration and religion, we argue that residential concentration can currently play a beneficial role in terms of the insertion of migrants in Italian cities and fulfillment of some of their needs (e.g., availability of minority places of worship).