Street PAR and the Community: Exploring the Linkages Between Market Economic Conditions, Social Cohesion, and Crime

• In Event: Multidimensional Approaches to Studying Crime and the Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, and Community Characteristics

Abstract

This street participatory action research (Street PAR) project examined the impact of economic market conditions, social cohesion, and crime in a large community sample (N=772) of street-identified Black males and females in the Northside and Westside sections of Wilmington, Delaware. Street PAR is a research orientation or ethnographic methodology that works with persons formerly or actively involved in street culture to do research and activism on street-identified populations. Moreover, our analysis combines individual-level data from street-identified persons with neighborhood-level social and economic indicators for the Northside and Westside. Specifically, individual surveys are merged with census tract/neighborhood characteristics to explore the development of, and linkages between, economic conditions, social cohesion, and crime at the community level.

Authors

• Abass Muhammed, University of Delaware

• Karen F. Parker, University of Delaware

• Yasser A. Payne, University of Delaware