NCJ Number
245313
Journal
Criminology Volume: 51 Issue: 3 Dated: August 2013 Pages: 519-560
Date Published
August 2013
Length
42 pages
Annotation
Research shows that residents report high levels of disorder in places with greater concentrations of minorities even after controlling for objective indicators of crime or disorder. Less understood, however, are the mechanisms that explain this relationship.
Abstract
Drawing on a survey of nearly 10,000 residents nested within 297 neighborhoods across 2 cities, the authors used a multiple indicators-multiple causes model to examine the cues that lead individuals to distort the presence of minorities in neighborhoods. The authors then employed multilevel models to test whether these distortions influenced perceptions of disorder. Furthermore, the authors assessed whether living in a socially cohesive neighborhood mediates and/or moderates the relationship between "seeing" minorities and perceiving disorder. The authors found that when residents overestimate the proportion of minorities living in their neighborhood, perceptions of disorder are heightened. Yet social cohesion moderates and partially mediates this relationship: Residents living in socially cohesive neighborhoods not only report less disorder than those living in less cohesive communities, but also they "see" fewer minorities when compared with residents living in less socially cohesive neighborhoods. These results suggest that social cohesion is an important mechanism for explaining how residents internalize the presence of minorities in their neighborhoods and how this then leads to perceived neighborhood disorder. (Published Abstract)