Neighborhoods and crime over time: Nothing endures but change?

• In Event: Neighborhood Change and Crime

Abstract

A long-standing puzzle in criminology is the crime decline that has occurred in neighborhoods and cities over the last two decades. While there are a variety of mechanisms that explain changes in neighborhood crime rates, few studies have examined these patterns over several decades. Whereas some neighborhood factors might be durable across time in their consequences for crime, other research implies that many neighborhood effects have changed over the last few decades. To examine this puzzle, I analyze six types of crime using neighborhood data from 1970 to 2010.

Author

• Adam Boessen, University of Missouri - St. Louis