An Examination of the Black Middle Class and Neighborhood Crime

• In Event: Exploring the Intersection of Race and Class and the Consequences for Crime in Neighborhoods

Abstract

In The Truly Disadvantaged, William Julius Wilson (1987) argues that, due to black middle class out-migration, today’s black urban neighborhoods comprise almost exclusively of the most disadvantaged segments of the African American population, and therefore lack the basic opportunities, resources, and social controls necessary to reduce crime. In this paper, I revisit these arguments by examining the relationship between the black middle class, neighborhood race-ethnic composition, and crime across a diverse set of cities using data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study (NNCS). The results presented here demonstrate that many black middle class families do reside in the urban core, and that most of these households are located in predominately black neighborhoods. Moreover, I find that the black middle class is “protective” against crime in black, Latino and mixed neighborhoods, but not in white neighborhoods. Overall, this study highlights the need to further contextualize the neighborhood conditions of the black middle class in contemporary urban America.

Author

• Claire Greene, University of Missouri - St. Louis