Escaping the Long Arm of Poverty: Extended Geographies of Child Victimization and Violence Exposures

• In Event: 176 - Regular Session. Criminology

Abstract

Neighborhood poverty has long been viewed as an important predictor of children’s exposures to violence and victimization. A growing body of evidence from ecological studies indicates that crime and violence are affected not just by a neighborhood’s poverty level but also the poverty level in nearby areas. However, such evidence has not been systematically integrated in the neighborhood effects and victimization literature, where neighborhoods remain assumed to predominantly function as isolated islands having no interaction with surrounding areas. The current study turns this assumption into an empirical question and explores the importance of exposure to an extended geography of poverty that encompasses not only the residential neighborhood but also the surrounding or nearby areas. We examine longitudinal data on over 4,400 low-income children, ages 8 through 19, whose families lived at baseline in extremely poor neighborhoods (over 40% poverty rate) and participated in the Moving to Opportunity randomized intervention in five cities. The results suggest that surrounding area poverty may matter more than residential neighborhood poverty for child victimization. Living further away from an area of extreme poverty also seems to act as a buffer against victimization. Moreover, a larger distance to extreme poverty amplifies the benefits of moving to an extended area where both residential and nearby neighborhoods lack extreme poverty. Differences by age and gender are discussed. The findings suggest that neighborhood and housing interventions would minimize low-income children’ victimization and violence exposures more when extending the geographic lens to reduce poverty exposures beyond the residential neighborhoods.

Authors

• Corina Graif, The Pennsylvania State University

• Stephen A Matthews, Pennsylvania State University