This project examines violent victimisation and offending in poor urban neighbourhoods in Nairobi, Kenya. Using data from the 2000 Nairobi Cross-sectional Slum Survey (NCSS), the study assesses neighbourhood characteristics utilising the foundation from US-based neighbourhood effect research. Results from multilevel models demonstrate that social disorganisation theory and neighbourhood effect research can work as a framework for studying neighbourhood-level processes and public safety in the rapidly urbanising region of sub-Saharan Africa. However, important exceptions exist. A robust and positive relationship between residential stability and violent victimisation by strangers was found. This relationship between residential stability and personal victimisation, in addition to a positive association between household-level residential stability and family violence, shows support for the negative effects associated with poverty traps in urban Africa. Neighbourhood characteristics matter for public safety in Nairobi, but frameworks for examining neighbourhood effects must consider the context of chronically poor neighbourhoods in urban Africa.
AgnewR. (2006) Pressured into Crime. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publishing Company.
2.
AkersR. L. (1998) Social Learning and Social Structure: A General Theory of Crime and Deviance. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
3.
AlderG. (1995) Tackling poverty in Nairobi’s informal settlements: developing an institutional strategy, Environment and Urbanization, 7, pp. 85–107.
4.
AndersonE. (1999) Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
5.
APHRC (African Population and Health Research Centre) (2002) Population and health dynamics in Nairobi’s informal settlements. APHRC, Nairobi.
6.
BeguyD.BocquierP.ZuluE. M. (2010) Circular migration patterns and determinants in Nairobi slums settlements, Demographic Research, 23, pp. 549–586.
7.
BurgessE. W. (1925) The growth of the city: an introduction to a research project, in: ParkR. E.BurgessE. W.McKenzieR. D. (Eds) The City. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
8.
ClinardM. B.AbbottD. J. (1973) Crime in Developing Nations: A Comparative Perspective. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
9.
CohenA. K. (1955) Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang. New York: The Free Press.
10.
DavisM. (2006) Planet of Slums. New York: Verso.
11.
EbbeN. I. O. (1989) Crime and delinquency in metropolitan Lagos: a study of ‘crime and delinquency area’ theory, Social Forces, 67, pp. 751–765.
12.
FaganJ.WexlerS. (1987) Crime at home and in the streets: the relationship between family and stranger violence, Violence and Victims, 2, pp. 5–23.
13.
GreifM. J.Nii-Amoo DodooF.JayaramanA. (2011) Urbanisation, poverty and sexual behaviour: the tale of five African cities, Urban Studies, 48, pp. 947–957.
14.
HarrisonP. (2006) On the edge of reason: planning and urban futures in Africa, Urban Studies, 43, pp. 319–335.
15.
HattoriM. K.Nii-Amoo DodooF. (2007) Cohabitation, marriage, and ‘sexual monogamy’ in Nairobi’s slums, Social Science & Medicine, 64, pp. 1067–1078.
16.
JargowskyP. A. (1997) Poverty and Place: Ghettos, Barrios, and the American City. New York: Russell Sage.
17.
KasardaJ. D.JanowitzM. (1974) Community attachment in mass society, American Sociological Review, 39, pp. 328–339.
18.
KomiyamaH.TakeuchiK.ShiroyamaH.TakashiM. (2011) Sustainability Science: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.
19.
KornhauserR. (1978) Social Sources of Delinquency: An Appraisal of Analytic Models. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
20.
LeeM. R. (2000) Community cohesion and violent predatory victimization: a theoretical extension and cross-national test of opportunity theory, Social Forces, 79, pp. 683–706.
21.
LudwigJ.SanbonmatsuL.GennetianL.AdamE.. (2011) Neighborhoods, obesity, and diabetes—a randomized social experiment, New England Journal of Medicine, 365, pp. 1509–1519.
22.
MaimonD.BrowningC. R. (2010) Unstructured socializing, collective efficacy, and violent behavior among urban youth, Criminology, 48, pp. 443–474.
23.
MasseyD. S. (1996) The age of extremes: concentrated affluence and poverty in the twenty-first century, Demography, 33, pp. 395–412.
24.
MertonR. K. (1957) Social Theory and Social Structure, rev. edn. Glencoe: The Free Press.
25.
MitullahW. (2003) Urban slums reports: the case of Nairobi, Kenya, in:Understanding Slums: Case Studies for the Global Report on Human Settlements, Development Planning Unit, University College London.
26.
MontgomeryM. R. (2008) The urban transformation of the developing world, Science, 319, pp. 761–764.
27.
MontgomeryM. R.HewettP. C. (2005) Urban poverty and health in developing nations: household and neighborhood effects, Demography, 42, pp. 397–425.
28.
MoserC. O. N. (2004) Urban violence and insecurity: an introductory roadmap, Environment and Urbanization, 16, pp. 3–16.
29.
MoserC. O. N. (2006) Reducing urban violence in developing countries. Policy Brief No. 2006-01, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.
30.
MuggahR.KrauseK. (2009) Closing the gap between peace operations and post-conflict insecurity: towards a violence reduction agenda, International Peacekeeping, 16, pp. 136–150.
31.
National Research Council (2003) Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and Its Implications in the Developing World. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
32.
OstromE. (2011) Beyond markets and states: polycentric governance of complex economic systems, American Economic Review, 100, pp. 1–33.
33.
PerlmanJ. (2010) Favela: Four Decades of Living on the Edge in Rio De Janeiro. New York: Oxford University Press.
34.
PutnamR. D. (2007) E pluribus unum: diversity and community in the twenty-first century: the 2006 Johan Skytte Prize lecture, Scandinavian Political Studies, 30, pp. 137–174.
35.
RaudenbushS. W.BrykA. S. (2002) Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
36.
RavallionM.ChenS.SangraulaP. (2007) New evidence on the urbanization of global poverty, Population and Development Review, 33, pp. 667–701.
37.
ReardonS.FirebaughG. (2002) Measures of multigroup segregation, Sociological Methodology, 32, pp. 33–67.
38.
RiddellB. (1997) Structural adjustment programmes and the city in tropical Africa, Urban Studies, 34, pp. 1297–1307.
39.
RossC. E.ReynoldsJ. R.GeisK. J. (2000) The contingent meaning of neighborhood stability for residents’ psychological well-being, American Sociological Review, 65, pp. 581–597.
40.
SachsJ. D. (2006) The End of Poverty. New York: The Penguin Press.
41.
SampsonR. J. (2012) Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
42.
SampsonR. J.GrovesW. B. (1989) Community structure and crime: testing social disorganization theory, The American Journal of Sociology, 94, pp. 774–802.
43.
SampsonR. J.LauritsenJ. L. (1994) Violent victimization and offending: individual-, situational-, and community-level risk factors, in: ReissA. J.RothJ. A. (Eds) Understanding and Preventing Violence, Vol. 3, pp. 1–114. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
44.
SampsonR. J.MorenoffJ. D.Gannon-RowleyT. (2002) Assessing ‘neighbourhood effects’: social processes and new directions in research, Annual Review of Sociology, 28, pp. 443–478.
45.
SassenS. (2001) The Global City. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
46.
SeedatM.NiekerkA.van JewkesR.SufflaS.RateleK. (2009) Violence and injuries in South Africa: prioritising an agenda for prevention, Lancet, 374, pp. 1011–1022.
47.
ShafferJ. N.RubackB. R. (2002) Violent victimization as a risk factor for violent offending among juveniles. Bulletin, Office Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, US Department of Justice, Washington, DC.
48.
ShamuS.AbrahamsN.TemmermanM.MusekiwaA.ZarowskyC. (2011) A systematic review of African studies on intimate partner violence against pregnant women: prevalence and risk factors, PLoS ONE, 6, pp. 1–9.
49.
ShawC. R.McKayH. D. (1942) Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
50.
SkoganW. G. (1990) Disorder and Decline: Crime and the Spiral Decay in American Neighborhoods. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
51.
SmithW. R.FrazeeS. G.DavisonE. L. (2000) Furthering the integration of routine activity and social disorganization theories: small units of analysis and the study of street robbery as a diffusion process, Criminology, 38, pp. 489–523.
52.
SparksR. F. (1982) Research on Victims of Crime. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
53.
StiglitzJ. E. (2002) Globalization and Its Discontents. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
54.
UN-HABITAT (2007) Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007. London: Earthscan Publications.
55.
UN-HABITAT (2011) Building Urban Safety through Slum Upgrading. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Human Settlements Programme.
56.
UN-HABITAT and UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) (2002) Crime in Nairobi: results of a citywide victim survey. Safer Cities Series No. 4, UN-Habitat/ITDG, Nairobi, Kenya.
57.
VlahovD.AgarwalS. D.BuckleyR. M.CaiaffaW. T.. (2011) Roundtable on urban living environment research, Journal of Urban Health, 88, pp. 793–857.
58.
WacquantL. (2008) Urban Outcasts: A Comparative Sociology of Advanced Marginality. Cambridge: Polity Press.
59.
WatsonV. (2010) Informal settlements: in search of a home in the city, in: VlahovD.BouffordJ.PearsonC.NorrisL. (Eds) Urban Health: Global Perspectives, pp. 305–316. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass and John Wiley & Sons.
60.
WeinbergS. K. (1976) Shaw–McKay theories of delinquency in cross-cultural context, in: ShortJ. F.Jr (Ed.) Delinquency, Crime, and Society, pp. 167–185. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
61.
WilsonW. J. (1987) The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago, IL: University Chicago Press.
62.
WilsonW. J. (1996) When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
63.
WolfgangM. E.FerracutiF. (1982) The Subculture of Violence. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
64.
World Bank (2008) World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development. Washington, DC: World Bank.
65.
World Bank (2009) World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography. Washington, DC: World Bank.
66.
WrightE. M.BensonM. L. (2010) Immigration and intimate partner violence: exploring the immigrant paradox, Social Problems, 57, pp. 480–503.
