Effects of Displacement on Impoverished Youth: Adaptation to New Areas and Increases in Delinquency and Deviance

• In Event: Explaining Delinquency and Drug Use in the Context of Neighborhood

Abstract

Individuals within housing projects and impoverished neighborhoods are often forced to move to other impoverished neighborhoods due to gentrification, the closing of subsidized housing for political and economic reasons, and poorly planned renovation projects that serve to disrupt the already unstable existence of this vulnerable population. This research explores the effects of this forced displacement on juveniles from 13 to 18 years of age using data from the Mobile Youth Survey. A pooled-time series analysis and a hybrid mixed effects model is used to isolate the effect of neighborhood change on various measures of delinquency and deviance. Results indicate that changing neighborhoods and schools has a deleterious effect on the behavior of these juveniles, leading to an increase in drug use, violence, weapons carrying, and gang membership. Psychological effects are also explored including the effects of mobility on feelings of worry, connection to social institutions, feelings of safety and willingness to use violence in order to adapt to new surroundings. This research shows that more care should be taken in the planning of disruptions within these areas of concentrated disadvantage considering the negative effect it has on communities and individuals within these areas.

Author

• Michael Alan Hollingsworth, Old Dominion University