From Bad to Worse: How Changing Inequality in Nearby Areas impacts Local Crime

• In Event: Crime in Metropolitan America: Patterns and Trends across the Dynamic Southern California Landscape

Abstract

There is growing recognition that criminogenic neighborhood effects may not end at the borders of local communities, that neighborhoods are located relative to one another in ways that shape local crime rates. Inspired by this insight, this study explores the changing spatial distribution of race and income around a location and determines how such changes affect crime patterns and trends in neighborhoods in the southern California region. In particular, we examine how changes from 2000 to 2010 in the income composition, the racial composition, and the intersection of these two constructs affects changes in the level of crime across local areas. We explore two strategies for representing the spatial distribution of these measures. The findings suggest that accounting for changes in the nearby areas help explain variation in crime within the focal unit.

Authors

• Charis Kubrin, University of California, Irvine

• John R. Hipp, University of California, Irvine

• James Wo, University of California, Irvine