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RACE, CRIME, AND THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS, 1999–2013

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2018

Lauren J. Krivo ,
María B. Vélez ,
Christopher J. Lyons ,
Jason B. Phillips  and
Elizabeth Sabbath
Lauren J. Krivo*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology and Program in Criminal Justice, Rutgers University-NewBrunswick
María B. Vélez*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of NewMexico
Christopher J. Lyons*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of NewMexico
Jason B. Phillips
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Rutgers University-NewBrunswick
Elizabeth Sabbath
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of NewMexico
*
*Corresponding authors: Lauren J. Krivo, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University, 26 Nichol Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. E-mail: [email protected];María B. Vélez, Department of Sociology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131. E-mail: [email protected]; or Christopher Lyons, Department of Sociology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131. E-mail: [email protected].
*Corresponding authors: Lauren J. Krivo, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University, 26 Nichol Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. E-mail: [email protected];María B. Vélez, Department of Sociology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131. E-mail: [email protected]; or Christopher Lyons, Department of Sociology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131. E-mail: [email protected].
*Corresponding authors: Lauren J. Krivo, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University, 26 Nichol Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. E-mail: [email protected];María B. Vélez, Department of Sociology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131. E-mail: [email protected]; or Christopher Lyons, Department of Sociology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131. E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

For over a century, scholars have traced higher levels of serious crime in minority compared to White neighborhoods to stark socioeconomic inequality. Yet, this research is largely cross-sectional and does not assess how ethnoracial differences in crime patterns evolve over time in response to shifting structural conditions. The new century witnessed substantial changes to the circumstances that undergird the ethnoracial divide in neighborhood crime as well as a national crime decline. How are the changing dynamics of urban inequality reinforcing or diminishing racial and ethnic disparities in neighborhood crime in the context of the “Great American Crime Decline”? We address this question by first identifying distinct paths of violent and property crime change between 1999 and 2013 for almost 2700 neighborhoods across eighteen cities. We then assess how initial and changing levels of disadvantage, housing instability, and demographics explain divergent crime trajectories within neighborhoods. We find that most neighborhoods have lower levels of homicide and burglary than fifteen years ago. However, homicide and burglary increased in some neighborhoods, and this trend is largely limited to Black neighborhoods. Disadvantage and the housing crisis are critical in accounting for the heightened risk of neighborhoods having increasing rather than decreasing crime trends. In contrast, immigration is linked with declining and stable trends in violent and property crime. Overall, results indicate a widening of the racial-spatial divide for the most marginalized communities in the United States.

Keywords

Neighborhood CrimeEthnoracial InequalityCrime TrendsThe Great RecessionHomicideBurglary
Type
Understanding Race, Crime, and Justice in The Twenty-First Century
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , Spring 2018 , pp. 47 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2018 

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