The central purpose of this article is to examine the causal relationship between the percentage of homeowners in a neighborhood and city and crime rates. A cross-lag analysis is used for the years of 1980 and 1990. The analysis focuses both on the 100 largest cities in the United States and neighborhoods in Middle Atlantic City (pseudonym). The analysis of the data suggests that crime rates influence the percentage of homeowners more than homeownership deters crimes. The effects are most pronounced in higher-income neighborhoods. However, at the neighborhood level, the relationships are stronger, and there is evidence in support of the tipping and trapping phenomena.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ahlbrandt, R. S, Jr. (1984). Neighborhoods, people, and community. New York: Plenum.
2.
Anderson, E. (1990). Streetwise: Race, class, and change in an urban community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3.
Arvizu, J. R. , & Garcia, F. C. (1996). Latino voting participation: Explaining and differentiating Latino voting turnout. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 18, 104-128.
4.
Brillion, Y. (1988). Status and ideology in three Canadian provinces. In N. Walker & M. Hough (Eds.), Public attitudes to sentencing (pp. 84-110). London: Blackstone.
5.
Buckhauser, R. V. , Butrica, B. A., & Wasylenko, M. J. (1995). Patterns of older homeowners: Are older homeowners trapped in distressed neighborhoods?Research on Aging, 17, 363-384.
6.
Carlson, S. M. , & Michalowski, R. J. (1997). Crime, unemployment, and social structures of accumulation: An inquiry into historical contingency. Justice Quarterly, 14, 209-242.
7.
Currie, E. (1993). Reckoning: Drugs, the cities and the American future. New York: Hill and Wang.
8.
DeSouza, E. R. (1990). An examination of objective and subjective indicators of urban crime. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri at Kansas City.
9.
Dugan, L. (1999). The effect of criminal victimization on a household’s moving decision. Criminology, 37, 903-930.
10.
Finkel, S. E. (1995). Causal analysis with panel data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
11.
Ford, W. F. , & Moore, J. H. (1970). Additional evidence on the social characteristics of riot cities. Social Science Quarterly, 51, 339-348.
12.
Gilderbloom, J. I. , & Markham, J. P. (1995). The impact of homeownership on political beliefs. Social Forces, 73, 1589-1607.
13.
Gordon, D. M. , Edwards, R., & Reich, M. (1982). Segmented work, divided workers: The historical transformation of labor in the United States. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
14.
Hagedorn, J. M. (1988). People and folks: Gangs, crime and the underclass in a rustbelt city. Chicago: Lakeview.
15.
Hagedorn, J. M. (1994). Homeboys, dope fiends, legits, and new jacks. Criminology, 32, 197-219.
16.
Henderson, S. A. (1995). A better home in a nice neighborhood: Housing, race, and residential conflict. In M. I. Silver & M. Melkonian (Eds.), Contested terrain: Power, politics, and participation in suburbia (pp. 83-92). Westport, CT: Greenwood.
17.
Kasarda, J. D. (1993). Urban underclass database: An overview and machine-readable file documentation. Chapel Hill, NC: Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.
18.
Krause, D. R. (1976). Violence: A territorial analysis. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle.
19.
Mainieri, T. , Barnett, E. G., Valdero, T. R., Unipan, J. B., & Oskamp, S. (1997). Green buying: The influence of environmental concern on consumer behavior. Journal of Social Psychology, 137, 189-204.
20.
Morenoff, J. D. , & Sampson, R. J. (1997). Violent crime and the spatial dynamics of neighborhood transition: Chicago, 1970-1990. Social Forces, 76, 31-64.
21.
Perkins, D. D , Brown, B. B., & Taylor, R. B. (1996). The ecology of empowerment: Predicting participation in community organizations. Journal of Social Issues, 52, 85-110.
22.
Reingold, D. A. (1995). Public housing, home ownership, and community participation in Chicago’s inner city. Housing Studies, 10, 445-469.
23.
Robinson, D. , & Wilkinson, D. (1995). Sense of community in a remote mining town: Validating a neighborhood cohesion scale. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23, 137-148.
24.
Rohe, W. M. , & Basolo, V. (1997). Long-term effects of homeownership on the self-perceptions and social interaction of low-income persons. Environment and Behavior, 29, 793-819.
25.
Rohe, W. M. , & Stegman, M. A. (1994). The impact of home ownership of the social and political involvement of low-income people. Urban Affairs Quarterly, 30, 152-172.
26.
Roncek, D. W. (1981). Dangerous places: Crime and residential environment. Social Forces, 60, 74-96.
27.
Ross, M. (1977). Economics, opportunity and crime. Montreal, Canada: Renouf.
28.
Russell, L. A. , Goltz, J. D., & Bourque, L. B. (1995). Preparedness and hazard mitigation actions before and after two earthquakes. Environment and Behavior, 27, 744-770.
29.
Sampson, R. J. , & Wooldredge, J. D. (1986). Evidence that high crime rates encourage migration away from central cities. Sociology and Social Research, 70, 310-314.
30.
Skogan, W. G. (1990). Disorder and decline: Crime and the spiral of decay in American neighborhoods. Berkeley: University of California Press.
31.
Skogan, W. G. , & Maxfield, M. G. (1980). Cope with crime-victimization, fear, and reactions to crime in three American cities. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.
32.
South, S. J. , & Crowder, K. D. (1998). Housing discrimination and residential mobility: Impacts for Blacks and Whites. Population Research and Policy Review, 17, 369-387.
33.
Sullivan, M. L. (1989). “Getting Paid”: Youth crime and work in the inner city. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
34.
Taylor, R. , & Covington, J. (1988). Neighborhood changes in ecology and violence. Criminology, 26, 553-590.
35.
White, G. (1999). Crime and the decline of manufacturing, 1970-1990. Justice Quarterly, 16, 81-97.
36.
White, G. , & Schollaert, P. T. (1985). Participation in voluntary organizations among moderate income home owners and renters. Housing and Society, 12, 4-15.
37.
White, G. , & Schollaert, P. T. (1993). Home ownership and well-being. Housing and Society, 20, 31-40.
38.
Wilson, W. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass and public policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
39.
Wilson, W. J. (1991). Studying inner-city social dislocations: The challenge of public agenda research: 1990 presidential address. American Sociological Review, 56, 1-14.
40.
Winter, I. (1990). Home ownership and political activism: An interpretative approach. Housing Studies, 5, 273-285.
