In the United States Black citizens are more residentially segregated from Whites than other racial and/or ethnic group. Prior studies have found that these patterns of segregation result in part from feelings of resentment and racial stereotypes that Whites hold toward Blacks. In this study, we further explore this idea by assessing the relevance of criminal and economic stereotypes, along with an extensive set of community and individual-level controls in understanding White citizens preferences for segregation. Utilizing a sample of 1,222 White citizens we explore factors that shape their residential preferences. Our results demonstrate that Whites who view Black citizens as criminal and economic liabilities are less willing to desire them as neighbors. The results also suggest that the growth of the Black population further erodes White’s willingness to reside in communities with Black residents.
AdelmanR. M. (2004). Neighborhood opportunities, race, and class: The black middle class and residential segregation. City & Community, 3, 43–63.
2.
AlpertG. P.MacDonaldJ. M.DunhamR. G. (2005). Police suspicion and discretionary decision making during citizen stops. Criminology, 43, 407–434.
3.
American Association for Public Opinion Research. (2008). Standard definitions: Final dispositions of case codes and outcome rates for surveys. Ann Arbor, MI: Author.
4.
American Association for Public Opinion Research. (2011). Standard Definitions: Final dispositions of case codes and outcomes rates for surveys. Ann Arbor, MI: Author.
5.
BarghJ. A.BarghC. M.BurrowsL. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology71, 230–244.
6.
BarlowM. H. (1998). Race and the problem of crime in Time and Newsweek cover stories, 1946 to 1995. Social Justice, 25, 149–183.
7.
BeckettK. A.SassonT. (2000). The politics of injustice: Crime and punishment in America. Beverly Hills, CA: Pine Forge Press.
8.
BlumerH. (1958). Race prejudice as a sense of group position. The Pacific Sociological Review, 1, 3–7.
9.
BoboL.KluegelJ. R. (1997). Status, ideology and dimensions of whites' racial beliefs and attitudes: progress and stagnation. In MartinJ.TuchS. (eds.), Racial Attitudes in the 1990s: Continuity and Change. Westport, CT: Praeger.
10.
BoboL.ZubrinskyC. L. (1996). Attitudes on residential integration: Perceived status differences, mere in-group preference, or racial prejudice. Social Forces, 74, 883–909.
11.
BridgesG. S.SteenS. (1998). Racial disparities in official assessments of juvenile offenders: Attributional stereotypes as mediating mechanisms. American Sociological Review, 63, 554–570.
12.
BursikRobert J.GrasmickH. G. (1993). Economic deprivation and neighborhood crime rates, 1960-1980. Law and Society Review, 27, 263–283.
13.
CharlesC. Z. (2000). Neighborhood racial-composition preferences: Evidence from a multi-ethnic metropolis. Social Problems, 47, 379–407.
14.
CharlesC. Z. (2006). Won’t you be my neighbor? Race, class and residence in Los Angeles. New York, NY: Russell Sage.
15.
ChiricosT.WelchK.GertzM. (2004). The racial typification of crime and support for punitive measures. Criminology, 42, 359–390.
16.
Chua-EoanH. (2000, March 6). Black and blue. Time, 155, 24–28.
17.
ClarkW. A. V. (1991). Residential preferences and neighborhood racial segregation: A test of the Schelling segregation model. Demography, 28, 1–19.
18.
CrowderK.SouthS. J.ChavezE. (2006). Wealth, race, and inter-neighborhood migration. American Sociological Review, 71, 72–94.
19.
DevineP. G. (1989). Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 5–18.
20.
DuBoisW. E. B. (1899/1996). The Philadelphia negro: A social study. Philadelphia, PA: The University of Pennsylvania Press.
21.
DurkheimE. (1897/1951). Suicide. New York, NY: Free Press.
22.
EllenI. G. (2000). Sharing America’s neighborhoods: The prospects for stable racial integration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
23.
EmersonM. O.YanceyG.ChaiK. J. (2001). Does race matter in residential segregation? Exploring the preferences of white Americans. American Sociological Review, 66, 922–935.
24.
FarleyR.FreyW. H. (1994). Changes in the segregation of Whites from Blacks during the 1980s: Small steps toward a more integrated society. American Sociological Review, 59, 23–45.
25.
FarleyR.SteehC.KrysanM.JacksonT.ReevesK. (1994). Stereotypes and segregation: Neighborhoods in the Detroit area. American Journal of Sociology, 100, 750–780.
26.
FeaginJ. R. (1991). The continuing significance of race: Antiblack discrimination in public places. American Sociological Review, 56, 101–16.
27.
GreenD. P.StrolovitchD. Z.WongJ. S. (1998). Neighborhoods, integration, and racially motivated crime. American Journal of Sociology, 104, 372–403.
28.
HarrisD. R. (1999). “Property values drop when Blacks move in, because.”:Racial and socioeconomic determinants of neighborhood desirability. American Sociological Review, 64, 461–479.
29.
HarrisD. R. (2001). Why are Whites and Blacks averse to black neighbors?Social Science Research, 30, 100–116.
30.
HawkinsD. F. (1995). Ethnicity, race, and crime: Perspectives across time and place. Albany, NY: State University of New York Albany Press.
31.
JencksC.MayerS. E. (1990). The social consequences of growing up in a poor neighborhood. In LynnL. E.McGearyM. G. H. (eds.), Inner-City poverty in the United States (pp. 111–186). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
32.
KennedyR. (1997). Race, crime and the law. New York, NY: Pantheon.
33.
KingR. D.WheelockD. (2007). Group threat and social control: Race, perceptions of minorities, and the desire to punish. Social Forces, 85, 1255–1280.
34.
KishL. (1965). Survey sampling. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
35.
KrysanM. (2002). Community undesirability in black and white: Examining racial residential preferences through community perceptions. Social Problems, 49, 521–543.
36.
KrysanM.CouperM. P.FarleyR.FormanT. A. (2009). Does race matter in neighborhood preferences? Results from a video experiment. American Journal of Sociology, 115, 527–559.
37.
KrysanM.FarleyR. (2002). The residential preferences of Blacks: Do they explain persistent segregation?Social Forces, 80, 937–980.
38.
LavrakasP. J. (1987). Telephone survey methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
39.
LoganJ. R.StultsB (2011). The persistence of segregation in the metropolis new findings from the 2010 Census. US2010 Project. Russell Sage Foundation.
40.
LoganJ. R.StultsB. J.FarleyR. (2004). Segregation of minorities in the metropolis. Demography, 41, 1–22.
41.
LoganJ. R.ZhangW (2011). Global Neighborhoods: New Evidence from Census 2010. US2010 Project. Russell Sage Foundation.
42.
LouryG. (2002). The anatomy of racial inequality. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
43.
MasseyD. (2007). Categorically unequal: The American stratification system. New York, NY: Russell Sage Press.
44.
MasseyD.DentonN. (1989). Hypersegregation in U.S. metropolitan areas: Black and Hispanic segregation along five dimensions. Demography, 26, 373–391.
45.
MasseyD.DentonN. (1993). American apartheid: Segregation and the making of the underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
46.
McCartyC.HouseM.HarmanJ.RichardsS. (2006). Effort in phone survey response rates: The effects of vendor and client-controlled factors. Field Methods, 18, 172–188.
47.
Pattillo-McCoyM. (1999). Black picket fences: Privilege and peril among the black middle class. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
48.
Pew Research Center. (2004). Survey experiment shows polls face growing resistance, but still representative. Washington, DC: Author.
49.
QuillianL. (1999). Migration patterns and the growth of high-poverty neighborhoods, 1970-1990. American Journal of Sociology, 105, 1–37.
50.
QuillianL.PagerD. (2001). Black neighbors, higher crime? The role of racial stereotypes in evaluations of neighborhood crime. American Journal of Sociology, 107, 717–767.
51.
Rabe-HeskethS.SkrondalA. (2008). Multilevel and longitudinal modeling using Stata. College Station, TX: Stata Press.
52.
RaudenbushS. W.BrykA. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
53.
RussellK. (2002). The racial hoax as crime: The law as affirmation. In GabbidonS.L.GreeneH.T.YoungVernetta (Eds.), African American Classics in Criminology and Criminal Justice (pp. 349–376). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
54.
SampsonR. J.MorenoffJ. D.Gannon-RowleyT. (2002). Assessing neighborhood effects: Social processes and new directions in research. Annual Review of Sociology28, 443–478.
55.
SampsonR. J.RaudenbushS. W. (2004). Seeing disorder: Neighborhood stigma and the social construction of “broken windows.”Social Psychology Quarterly67, 319–342.
56.
SchumanH.BoboL. (1988). Survey-based experiments on white racial attitudes toward residential integration. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 273–299.
57.
SchumanH.SteehC.BoboL.KrysanM. (1997). Racial attitudes in America: Trends and interpretations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
58.
ShawC. R.McKayH. D. (1969). Juvenile Delinquency and Urban Areas. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
59.
SkoganW. (1990). Disorder and decline. New York, NY: Free Press.
60.
SmithD. J. (1991). The origins of black hostility to the police. Policing & Society, 2, 1–15.
61.
St. JohnC.BatesN. A. (1990). Racial composition and neighborhood evaluation. Social Science Research, 19, 47–61.
62.
StephanW.G.BonieckiK.A.YbarraO.BettencourtA.ErvinK.S.JacksonL.A.RenfroC.L. (2002). The role of threats in the racial attitudes of blacks and whites. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1242–1254.
63.
TaubR. P.TaylorD. G.DunhamJ. D. (1984). Paths of neighborhood change: Race and crime in urban America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
64.
TaylorM. C. (1998). How white attitudes vary with the racial composition of local populations: Numbers count. American Sociological Review, 63, 512–535.
65.
TourangeauR. (2004). Survey research and societal change. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 775–802.
66.
WeisbergH. F.KrosnickJ. A.BowenB. D. (1989). An introduction to survey research and data analysis. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.
67.
WilsonW. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
68.
WilsonW. J.TaubR. P. (2006). There goes the neighborhood: Racial, ethnic, and class tensions in four chicago neighborhoods and their meaning for America. New York, NY: Knopf.
