Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Or Poverty? The Jobs, Poverty, Social Isolation Nexus with Neighborhood Crime

• In Event: Measurement and Methodology

Abstract

As the U.S. recovers from economic recession, job availability and growth take on new meaning. Certainly the presidential candidates in this election cycle have highlighted the importance of job growth to the U.S. economy and future economic success. In this paper, we return to Wilson’s three major books (The Declining Significance of Race, The Truly Disadvantaged, When Work Disappears) to explore the role of work and what happens when it disappears in communities across the United States. Specifically, we examine conceptually and empirically the potential interconnections between jobs, poverty and social isolation in the study of community level crime. Using data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study (NNCS), which contains community level crime and socio-demographic indicators for over 9,500 census tracts in 91 large cities, we explore how multiple indicators of work, and its interconnections with poverty and social isolation, contribute to varying crime rates across areas.

Authors

• Patricia L. McCall, North Carolina State University

• Karen F. Parker, University of Delaware

• Cindy Brooks Dollar, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro