Reassessing the Relationship Between Mortgage Loan Investment and Crime Across Race/Ethnicity,Disadvantage,and Instability

Abstract

Home loans are associated with fewer crimes in neighborhoods and some research shows investment may be especially helpful in disadvantaged or minority neighborhoods. To replicate and extend this research, we estimate a series of multilevel negative binomial models on crime to (1) replicate prior research, (2) examine the robustness of extant findings to variable specification, and (3) expand on prior work by examining the conditional role of residential instability. In line with prior work, our results show that tracts receiving larger absolute and relative loan amounts experience fewer violent crimes. However, the magnitude of crime-reduction benefits of investment are attenuated when including aggravated assaults or accounting for the relative value of the loans. Though investment was associated with lower violent crime in all types of tracts, disproportionate benefits of investment—that is, more bang for the buck—occurs more consistently in White tracts than tracts of color. These findings underscore the importance of replication for ensuring sound housing and anti-crime policies.

Keywords

housing investment residential instability crime race/ethnicity social disorganization criminological theories

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Boggess

L. N.

Chamberlain

A. W.

(2021). Investing in neighborhoods: The mitigating role of home mortgage loans on intimate partner violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence 36(23–24), NP12783–NP12806. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519900312

Boggess

L. N.

Hipp

J. R.

(2010). Violent crime, residential instability and mobility: Does the relationship differ in minority neighborhoods?. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 26(3), 351–370.

Boggess

L. N.

Hipp

J. R.

(2016). The spatial dimensions of gentrification and the consequences for neighborhood crime. Justice Quarterly, 33(4), 584–613. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2014.943799

Branic

Hipp

J. R.

(2018). Growing pains or appreciable gains? Latent classes of neighborhood change, and consequences for crime in southern California neighborhoods. Social Science Research, 76, 77–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2018.08.002

Browning

C. R.

Byron

R. A.

Calder

C. A.

Krivo

L. J.

Kwan

M. P.

Lee

J. Y.

Peterson

R. D.

(2010). Commercial density, residential concentration, and crime: Land use patterns and violence in neighborhood context. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 47(3), 329–357. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427810365906

Bunting

W. C.

(2020). Does increased access to home mortgage money reduce local crime rates? Evidence from San Diego County. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 84, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2020.103570

Bursik

R. J.

Grasmick

H. G.

(1993). Neighborhoods and crime: The dimensions of effective community control. Lexington Books.

Chamberlain

A. W.

Hipp

J. R.

(2015). It’s all relative: Concentrated disadvantage. Within and across neighborhoods and communities, and the consequences for neighborhood crime. Journal of Criminal Justice 43(6), 431–443. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2015.08.004

Chamberlain

A. W.

Wallace

Pfeiffer

Gaub

(2018). Housing disinvestment and crime in a phoenix suburb: Exploring the differential effects of investors and owner-occupants. Urban Affairs Review, 54(1), 190–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087416640126

10.

Dietz

R. D.

Haurin

D. R.

(2003). The social and private micro-level consequences of homeownership. Journal of Urban Economics, 54(3), 401–450. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0094-1190(03)00080-9

11.

Ellen

I. G.

O’Regan

(2010). Crime and urban flight revisited: The effect of the 1990s drop in crime on cities. Journal of Urban Economics, 68(3), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2010.05.002

12.

Faber

J. W.

(2013). Racial dynamics of subprime mortgage lending at the peak. Housing Policy Debate, 23(2), 328–349. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2013.771788

13.

Faber

J. W.

Ellen

I. G.

(2016). Race and the housing cycle: Differences in home equity trends among long-term homeowners. Housing Policy Debate, 26(3), 456–473. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.2015.1128959

14.

Galster

G. C.

(1987). Homeowners and Neighborhood Reinvestment. Duke University Press.

15.

Gardner

Mulvey

E. P.

Shaw

E. C.

(1995). Regression analyses of counts and rates: Poisson, overdispersed Poisson, and negative binomial models. Psychological Bulletin, 118(3), 392–404. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.118.3.392

16.

Gill

L.M.

Boggess

L. N

Chamberlain

A. W

. (2022). Neighborhood fixer uppers: Do home improvement loans influence crime across race and over time? American Journal of Criminal Justice, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103–022-09679-4

17.

Harris

C. T.

Feldmeyer

(2013). Latino immigration and White, Black, and Latino violent crime: A comparison of traditional and non-traditional immigrant destinations. Social Science Research, 42(1), 202–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.08.014

18.

Haurin

D. R.

Dietz

R. D.

Weinberg

B. A.

(2013). The impact of neighborhood homeownership rates: A review of the theoretical and empirical literature. Housing Policy Debate, 13(2), 119–151. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44944780

19.

Hipp

J. R.

Tita

G. E.

Greenbaum

R. T.

(2009). Drive-bys and trade-ups: Examining the directionality of the crime and residential instability relationship. Social Forces, 87(4), 1777–1812. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40344999

20.

Hipp

J. R.

Williams

S. A.

(2020). Advances in spatial criminology: The spatial scale of crime. Annual Review of Criminology, 3(1), 75–95. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-011419-041423

21.

Johnson

L. T.

(2021). Modeling urban neighborhood violence: The systemic model and variable effects of social structure. Urban Affairs Review, 57(1), 128–152. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087419844018

22.

Kasarda

J. D.

Janowitz

(1974). Community attachment in mass society. American Sociological Review, 39(3), 328–339. https://doi.org/10.2307/2094293

23.

Logan

J. R.

Molotch

H. L.

(2007). Urban fortunes: The political economy of place. Univ of California Press.

24.

Mallach

(2019). Over the edge: Trajectories of African American middle neighborhoods in St. Louis since 2000. Journal of Urban Affairs, 42(7), 1063–1085. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2019.1607747

25.

Markley

S. N.

Hafley

T. J.

Allums

C. A.

Holloway

S. R.

Chung

H. C.

(2020). The limits of homeownership: Racial capitalism, Black wealth, and the appreciation gap in Atlanta. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 44(2), 310–328. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijur.v44.2

26.

Massey

D. S.

Denton

N. A.

(1988). The dimensions of residential segregation. Social Forces, 67(2), 281–315. https://doi.org/10.2307/2579183

27.

McCabe

B. J.

(2013). Are homeowners better citizens? Homeownership and community participation in the United States. Social Forces, 91, 929–954. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sos185

28.

Mize

T. D.

(2019). Best practices for estimating, interpreting, and presenting nonlinear interaction effects. Sociological Science, 6, 81–117. https://doi.org/10.15195/v6.a4

29.

Morenoff

J. D.

Sampson

R. J.

Raudenbush

S. W.

(2001). Neighborhood inequality, collective efficacy, and the spatial dynamics of urban violence. Criminology, 39(3), 517–558. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2001.tb00932.x

30.

Mustillo

S.A.

Lizardo

O.A.

McVeigh

R.M.

(2018). American Sociological Review, 83(6), 1281–1283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122418806282

31.

Osgood

D. W.

(2000). Poisson-based regression analysis of aggregate crime rates. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 16(1), 21–43. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007521427059

32.

Papachristos

A. V.

Smith

C. M.

Scherer

M. L.

Fugiero

M. A.

(2011). More coffee, less crime? The relationship between gentrification and neighborhood crime rates in Chicago, 1991 to 2005. City & Community, 10(3), 215–240. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6040.2011.01371.x

33.

Perry

A. M.

(2020). Know your price: Valuing Black lives and property in America’s Black cities. Brookings Institution Press.

34.

Peterson

R. D.

Krivo

L. J

. (2010a). Divergent social worlds: neighborhood crime and the racial-spatial divide. Russell Sage.

35.

Peterson

R. D.

Krivo

L. J

. (2010b). National neighborhood crime study (NNCS), 2000 [Computer file]. ICPSR27501–v1. Ann Arbor, MI: ICPSR [distributor], 2010–05–05.

36.

Rohe

W. M.

Stegman

M. A.

(1994). The impact of home ownership on the social and political involvement of low-income people. Urban Affairs Review, 30(1), 152–172. https://doi.org/10.1177/004208169403000108

37.

Rohe

W. M.

Stewart

L. S.

(1996). Homeownership and neighborhood stability. Housing Policy Debate, 7(1), 37–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/10511482.1996.9521213

38.

Rohe

W. M.

Van Zandt

McCarthy

(2002). Social Benefits and costs of homeownership. In: Retsinas

N. P.

Belsky

E. S.

. Low-income homeownership: examining the unexamined goal, Brookings Institution Press. Harvard University.

39.

Rothstein

(2017). The color of law: a forgotten history of how our government segregated America. : Liveright.

40.

Rutan

D. Q.

Glass

M. R.

(2018). The lingering effects of neighborhood appraisal: Evaluating redlining’s legacy in Pittsburgh. The Professional Geographer, 70(3), 339–349. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2017.1371610

41.

Sampson

R. J.

Raudenbush

Earls

(1997). Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science, 277(5328), 918–924. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.277.5328.918

42.

Saporu

Patton

C. L

III Krivo

L. J

Peterson

R. D

. (2011). Differential benefits? Crime and community investments in racially distinct neighborhoods. Race and Justice 1(1), 79–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/2153368710396381

43.

Shrider

E. A.

Ramey

D. M.

(2018). Priming the pump: Public investment, private mortgage investment, and violent crime. City & Community, 17(4), 996–1014. https://doi.org/10.1111/cico.1234

44.

Silver

Miller

L. L.

(2004). Sources of informal social control in Chicago neighborhoods. Criminology, 42(3), 551–583. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2004.tb00529.x

45.

South

E. C.

MacDonald

Reina

(2021). Association between structural housing repairs for low-income homeowners and neighborhood crime. JAMA Network Open, 4(7), e2117067.

46.

Squires

G. D

. (ed.). (1992). From redlining to reinvestment: Community responses to urban disinvestment. Temple University Press.

47.

Squires

G. D.

Kubrin

C. E.

(2006). Privileged places: Race, residence, and the structure of opportunity. Lynne Rienner.

48.

Squires

G. D.

O’Conner

. (2001). Color and money: Politics and prospects for community reinvestment in urban American. State University of New York Press.

49.

Stucky

T. D.

Ottensmann

J. R.

(2009). Land use and violent crime. Criminology, 47(4), 1223–1264. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2009.00174.x

50.

Stucky

T. D.

Ottensmann

J. R.

Payton

S. B.

(2012). The effect of foreclosures on crime in Indianapolis, 2003–2008. Social Science Quarterly, 93(3), 602–624. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42864089

51.

Thomas

S. A.

Drawve

(2018). Examining interactive effects of characteristics of the social and physical environment on aggravated assault. Journal of Criminal Justice, 57, 89–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2018.04.002

52.

Vélez

M. B.

(2009). Banks and the racial patterning of homicide: A study of Chicago neighborhoods. International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 3(2), 154–171. https://doi.org/10.4119/ijcv-2783

53.

Vélez

M. B.

Lyons

Boursaw

(2012). Assessing the relationship between mortgage lending and crime: An analysis of Seattle neighborhoods (1981–2007). Criminology, 50(4), 1025–1056. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2012.00287.x

54.

Vélez

M. B.

Richardson

(2012). The political economy of neighborhood homicide in Chicago: The role of bank investment. British Journal of Criminology, 52(3), 490–513. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azr092

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.02 MB

0.01 MB