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PURPOSE To compare the role of neighborhood social disorganization factors on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) diagnosis rates in urban and rural areas in Florida, we conducted an ecologic study of HIV diagnosis rates during 2013-2017 and social disorganization components, including concentrated disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, and residential instability. METHODS Indices of social disorganization components were obtained from principal component analyses of American Community Survey variables for 910 postal codes. Rural/urban classification was based on the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Urban Commuting Area codes. Using multivariable linear regression, the relationship between social disorganization indices and HIV diagnosis rates was assessed. FINDINGS The only social disorganization index that was significantly higher in rural than urban areas was concentrated disadvantage. In rural areas, the concentrated disadvantage index was significantly associated with HIV diagnosis rates (P = .007) when controlling for the other social disorganization factors but was no longer significant after additionally controlling for prevalence of people with an HIV diagnosis who were not virally suppressed. In urban areas, even after controlling for prevalence of people with HIV who were not virally suppressed, lower male-to-female population ratios and higher scores of residential instability, concentrated disadvantage, and LatinX/immigrant density indices were associated with higher HIV diagnosis rates (all P < .01). CONCLUSIONS In addition to improving community levels of viral suppression, the community contextual environment, including the rurality of the environment, needs to be considered in strategies to end the HIV epidemic in the United States.

Summary Introduction Significant health disparities exist in asthma and obesity for African American youths. Successful interventions present an opportunity to address these disparities but require detailed study in order to ensure generalizability. This study investigated the intersection of obesity, neighbourhood disadvantage, and asthma. Methods Data were extracted from 129 African American females ages 13 to 19 years (mean = 15.6 years [SD = 1.9]). Obesity was measured via body mass index (BMI). Asthma status was based on clinical diagnosis and/or results of the International Study of Asthma and Allergies during Childhood (ISAAC) questionnaire. The concentrated disadvantage index (CDI) assessed neighbourhood disadvantage. Results Findings showed that 21.5% (n = 28) of participants were clinically defined as having asthma, 76.2% (n = 99) had obesity, and 24.9% (n = 31) were classified without obesity. The mean BMI was 35.1 (SD = 9.1) and the mean CDI was 1.0 (SD = 0.9). CDI and obesity were significantly associated in participants without asthma, but not in those with asthma. Multivariable linear regression results showed a significant interaction between CDI and asthma (t value = 2.2, P = .03). Conclusion In sum, results from this study found that asthma moderated the relationship between neighbourhood disadvantage and obesity.

The link between relationship violence and aspects of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage (e.g., percent of unemployed adults, percent of families below poverty level), has been established. However, the literature examining neighborhood social processes, including informal social control and social cohesion, in relation to adolescent dating violence has shown mixed results with a limited theoretical foundation and methodology. Using a social disorganization theoretical framework, this study examined the mediating role of these neighborhood social processes in the relation between concentrated disadvantage and adolescent dating violence within an urban context. Participants included 605 adult residents in 30 census tracts and 203 adolescents from neighborhoods on the West and South sides of Chicago. Neighborhood-level concentrated disadvantage was measured via Census data, adult residents reported on neighborhood social processes, and youth reported on dating violence. Informal social control was negatively associated with dating violence, and social cohesion was positively associated with dating violence. A multilevel mediation model showed that concentrated disadvantage was related to higher levels of dating violence via lower levels of informal social control. These results extend social disorganization theory to dating violence within an urban context, while also highlighting the important role of neighborhood processes on relationship violence. Implications for research and intervention programming are discussed.

Objective While scholars treat neighborhoods as important contexts of inequality, few studies explore the social processes that create disparities in neighborhoods’ political capacities. How does neighborhood social organization affect rates of political participation? Methods We combine surveys from the U.S. Census and Boston Neighborhood Survey (BNS), and administrative data from the City of Boston. Accounting for spatial dependence, we fit a series of regression models investigating the relationship between neighborhood social structure and four forms of political engagement: community meeting attendance, contacting local government for services, and voter turnout in a local and a national midterm election. Results We find higher rates of political participation in more stable neighborhoods, and lower rates of participation in neighborhoods with higher concentrations of immigrants. The relationship between collective efficacy and rates of political participation is not statistically significant in our models. We find a positive association between concentrated disadvantage and city election turnout, but this association is nonlinear: beyond a certain threshold, increases in disadvantage are associated with decreasing rates of participation. Conclusion We argue that neighborhoods are indeed political places, and residential stability, immigrant concentration, and—to a lesser extent—concentrated disadvantage are important factors affecting the civic capacity of urban communities.

A long history of research has indicated that neighborhood poverty increases youth's risk taking and delinquency. This literature predominantly has treated neighborhoods as independent of their surroundings despite rapidly growing ecological evidence on the geographic clustering of crime that suggests otherwise. This study proposes that to understand neighborhood effects, investigating youth's wider surroundings holds theoretical and empirical value. By revisiting longitudinal data on more than 1500 low-income youth who participated in the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) randomized intervention, this article explores the importance of extended neighborhoods (neighborhoods and surroundings) and different concentrated disadvantage configurations in shaping gender differences in risk taking and delinquency. The results from two-stage, least-squares analyses suggest that the extended neighborhoods matter and they matter differently by gender. Among girls, extended neighborhoods without concentrated disadvantage were associated with lower risk-taking prevalence than extended neighborhoods with concentrated disadvantage. In contrast, among boys, localized concentration of disadvantage was associated with the highest prevalence of risk taking and delinquency. Interactions between the immediate and surrounding neighborhoods were similarly associated with differential opportunity and social disorganization mediators. Among the more critical potential mediators of the link between localized disadvantage and boys’ risk taking were delinquent network ties, strain, and perceived absence of legitimate opportunities for success.

Research Summary We develop a set of hypotheses informed by a social disorganization framework and test them using newly available data on nearly 600 terrorist attacks in U.S. counties from 1990 to 2011. Our results show that terrorist attacks were more common in counties characterized by greater language diversity, a larger proportion of foreign-born residents, greater residential instability, and a higher percentage of urban residents. Contrary to the social disorganization perspective but in keeping with most prior research, terrorist attacks were less common in counties marked by high levels of concentrated disadvantage. More generally, we found steady declines in the number of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from 1990 to 2011. We discuss the implications of the results for theory, future research, and policy. Policy Implications Terrorism, like ordinary crime, is highly concentrated. Of the 3,144 counties in the United States, only 250 (7.95%) experienced a terrorist attack from 1990 to 2011; 5 counties (0.002% of total U.S. counties) accounted for 16% of all attacks. Moreover, counties at greatest risk of terrorist attack have identifying characteristics. Just as random preventive patrol policing has generally been replaced by more targeted strategies, efforts to counter terrorism might benefit from strategies that target certain counties: those with high population heterogeneity and great residential instability that are highly urban. And just as targeting particular neighborhoods raises equity concerns in policing, policies aimed at counties with particular characteristics pose a challenge for countering terrorist attacks. However, unlike the situation in policing ordinary crime, high-terrorism-risk counties are generally not characterized by economic disadvantage or a large proportion of racial and ethnic minorities.

Father involvement reduces risky youth behavior at the individual level. We examine the association between the scarcity of adult men and youth violence at the Census Tract level across a small midwestern city experiencing decades of economic adversity and high rates of violence. We calculated the ratio of men to women aged 25–64 years and indicators of concentrated disadvantage across residential Census Tracts with 2000 U.S. Decennial Census data and the average monthly assault rates for those aged 10–24 years between June 2006 and December 2008 with data from the local police department. Adult male scarcity and the proportion of individuals aged 25 years or older who had less than a high school degree were the two unique predictors of youth assault rates, together explaining 69% of the variance. Interventions promoting effective social, material, and protective support from fathers and other adult male role models may ameliorate risk for youth violence. C

Previous studies focused on identifying the determinants of mortality in US counties have examined the relationships between mortality and explanatory covariates within a county only, and have ignored the well-documented spatial dependence of mortality. We challenge earlier literature by arguing that the mortality rate of a certain county may also be associated with the features of its neighboring counties beyond its own features. Drawing from both the spillover (i.e., same direction effect) and social relativity (i.e., opposite direction effect) perspectives, our spatial Durbin modeling results indicate that both theoretical perspectives provide valuable frameworks to guide the modeling of mortality variation in US counties. Our empirical findings support that mortality rate of a certain county is associated with the features of its neighbors beyond its own features. Specifically, we found support for the spillover perspective in which the percentage of the Hispanic population, concentrated disadvantage, and the social capital of a specific county are negatively associated with the mortality rate in the specific county and also in neighboring counties. On the other hand, the following covariates fit the social relativity process: health insurance coverage, percentage of non-Hispanic other races, and income inequality. Their direction of the associations with mortality in the specific county is opposite to that of the relationships with mortality in neighboring counties. Methodologically, spatial Durbin modeling addresses the shortcomings of traditional analytic approaches used in ecological mortality research such as ordinary least squares, spatial error, and spatial lag regression. Our results produce new insights drawn from unbiased estimates.

Objective. Aggregate crime rates continue to decline in the United States despite the depth and breadth of the current foreclosure crisis. This trend calls into question conventionalwisdomandpriorresearchthatsuggestacausal,positiverelationshipbetween foreclosures and crime. The objective of this article is to consider an alternative argument, that foreclosures and crime are part-and-parcel of the same communitylevel dynamics, and thus are not causally related. Methods. We use random effects modelstoanalyzecommunitycrimeandforeclosuredatafromChicagobetween2004 and 2009. Results. Findings reveal that crime and foreclosures are spuriously related; controlling for confounding factors such as concentrated disadvantage and the politicalhierarchyofcommunitiesrenderstheforeclosure-crimeassociationnonsignificant. Conclusion. Foreclosures and crime are each explained by antecedent community characteristics. To understand why social problems are unevenly distributed across geographic space, it is necessary to investigate why power and political influence are unevenly distributed. Data reported by the Mortgage Bankers Association reveal that the rate of mortgages entering foreclosure in the United States increased from roughly 0.2 percent in 1980 to 0.3 percent in 1990, and then to 0.4 percent by 2000. Then the increase in foreclosures accelerated, rising to 0.5 percent by 2006, to 0.6 percent by 2007, to 1.08 percent by the fourth quarter of 2008, to 1.20 percent by the fourth quarter of 2009, and to 1.27 percent by the fourth quarter of 2010 (Mortgage Bankers Association, 2010, 2011; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2007). The causes of this epidemic in home foreclosures are many, and include an oversupply of new homes, the rise in unsustainable subprime mortgage finance products, falling home values, limited home refinancing options, rising unemployment, and segregation (Rugh and Massey, 2010; U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2007). The consequences of the current foreclosure crisis need no exaggeration: global recession, massive investment losses, staggering unemployment, and the collapse of major financial institutions and markets (to name just a few). Yet one consequence that remains underexplored is the impact of home

Although the relationship between neighborhood characteristics and collective efficacy is well established in urban populations with community samples, it is unclear if this relationship holds in rural areas. The current study fills this gap by assessing the perceptions of adolescents from nonurban areas to examine the relationships between neighborhood characteristics and collective efficacy in areas with lower population density. Our sample comprised 402 late adolescents attending a Midwestern university (average age 19.1 years). Consistent with previous studies using urban neighborhoods, we found that higher concentrated disadvantage was related to lower levels of social cohesion, regardless of population density. However, neither residential stability nor concentrated immigration was predictive of social cohesion. None of the neighborhood characteristics significantly predicted social control, after controlling for population density.

We use data from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Study (LAFANS) to examine the degree to which social ties and collective efficacy influence neighborhood levels of crime, net of neighborhood structural characteristics. Results indicate that residential instability and collective efficacy were each associated with lower log odds of robbery victimization, while social ties had a positive effect on robbery victimization. Further, collective efficacy mediated 77 percent of the association between concentrated disadvantage and robbery victimization, while social ties had no mediating effect. The mediation effect for concentrated disadvantage, however, was substantially weaker in the Latino neighborhoods (where it was 52%) than in the non-Latino neighborhoods (where it was 82%), suggesting that a ‘‘Latino paradox’’ may be present in which crime rates in Latino neighborhoods appear to have less to do with local levels of collective efficacy than in non-Latino neighborhoods. Implications for future research bearing on both the Latino paradox and the systemic model of social control are discussed. For the past century, sociologists have sought to understand why some neighborhoods have high rates of crime and delinquency while others do not. Recent theory and research have coalesced around the notion that social capital and the social control it engenders are dominant causes of neighborhood-level variation in crime (for a review, see Sampson, Morenoff, and Gannon-Rowley 2002). This has led researchers to begin searching for local structural and organizational characteristics that give rise to these protective features of neighborhood life (Burchfield 2009; Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls 1997; Silver and Miller 2004; Warner 2003). And while these studies have increased our understanding by pointing to the effects of structural disadvantage (Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls 1997), neighborhood attachment (Burchfield 2009), satisfaction with local policing (Silver and Miller 2004), and the strength of local conventional values (Warner 2003), on collective efficacy to prevent crime and delinquency, compelling questions remain. In particular, research in this area is ambiguous regarding the role that social ties play in enhancing collective efficacy, fostering local social control, and controlling crime (Bellair 1997; Browning, Feinberg, and Dietz 2004; Pattillo

Since the early 1990s, the number of children with imprisoned mothers has increased 131%. A mother's imprisonment potentially exposes children to a concentrated disadvantage that undermines their cognitive, emotional, and intellectual abilities. Additionally, such experiences can have deleterious effects on mother-child relationships, stand-in caregivers, foster care caseloads, the penal system, and society. Less may be understood, however, about how imprisonment affects the ways in which women view themselves as mothers. This study examines mothering attitudes for a sample of 210 Black, White, and Hispanic imprisoned mothers. Nested modeling results suggest a positive relationship between favorable views about mothering and children's profiles and mothers' expectations about future custody. Regular contact with their children through letter writing and telephone calls foster the most favorable views.Key Words: identity theory, imprisoned mothers, mothering role.According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2.3% of the estimated 74 million minor-aged children in the U.S. resident population have an incarcerated parent. Since 1991, the number of children with an imprisoned mother has increased 131% (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009). Though imprisoned men currently outnumber women, increases in mothers' imprisonment currently outpace that of fathers (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2009). The effects of mothers' imprisonment can be extensive, impacting foster care caseloads, stretching limited social service provisions, and altering the quality of life for caregivers who become responsible for such children (Bowers & Meyers, 1999; Mackintosh, Meyers, & Kennon, 2006; Young & Smith, 2000). Other challenges include strained mother-child relationships and potential emotional, intellectual, and cognitive delays for children (Poehlmann, 2005a). Children exposed to parental imprisonment, particularly Black children and those whose parents have little education, have an increased risk of concentrated childhood disadvantage that can have long-term deleterious effects for them, their communities, and the larger society (Wildeman, 2009). Nonetheless, many mothers retain parental rights, continue to facilitate the mother role while imprisoned (Clark, 1995; Enos, 2001), and plan to resume full-time mothering after their release from prison (Norton-Hawk, 2006; Pollack 2006). Imprisoned women who maintain close relationships with family are less likely to recidivate and have an increased likelihood of parole success (Hairston & Rollin, 2006; Mustin, 1994).Given the deleterious effects of parental imprisonment and parent-child separation, individual and community stakeholders may benefit when imprisoned women maintain positive views about mothering (Johnston, 1995). Though some imprisoned mothers do not value or desire maternal roles, the present study sheds light on the many women who do. Although existing research examines mothers' experiences during imprisonment, the maternal identities that are reciprocally shaped by these experiences have not been adequately examined. Therefore, continued inquiry is needed about how maternal imprisonment impacts the lives and identities of mothers and children (Dalley, 2002; Enos, 2001; Henriques, 1996) and how to best prepare women for life after prison with their children (Norton-Hawk, 2006). The current study addresses these important considerations. We considered the following questions: How do expectations about mothering bear out for imprisoned mothers who are physically separated from their children? Do they express positive sentiments about mothering despite their inability to exhibit many of the corresponding behavioral expectations? The present study relies on regression modeling to investigate whether a sample of 210 White, Black, and Hispanic imprisoned mothers view their mothering roles favorably and dynamics that can foster or undermine affirming views. Beyond its academic import, this study is potentially significant because of the implications for identifying and developing strategies and practices that may enhance relationships between imprisoned mothers and their children. …

We studied a sample of reentering parolees in California in 2005–2006 to examine whether the social structural context of the census tract, as well as nearby tracts, along with the relative physical closeness of social service providers affects serious recidivism resulting in imprisonment. We found that a 1 standard deviation increase in the presence of nearby social service providers (within 2 miles) decreases the likelihood of recidivating 41 percent and that this protective effect was particularly strong for African American parolees. This protective effect was diminished by overtaxed services (as proxied by potential demand). We found that higher concentrated disadvantage and social disorder (as measured by bar and liquor store capacity) in the tract increases recidivism and that higher levels of disadvantage and disorder in nearby tracts increase recidivism. A 1 standard deviation increase in the concentrated disadvantage of the focal neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods increases the likelihood of recidivating by 26 percent. The findings suggest that the social context to which parolees return (both in their own neighborhood and in nearby neighborhoods), as well as the geographic accessibility of social service agencies, play important roles in their successful reintegration.

Objectives. What are the correlates of suicide among blacks and whites? One body of literature suggests that structural factors such as poverty, inequality, joblessness, and family disruption are the key contributors, while another literature considers the availability of firearms to be the central factor. No studies have thoroughly explored both possibilities together and thus we know little about the relative contributions of motivation to commit suicide due to structural conditions and opportunity to commit suicide due to firearm availability. The current study addresses this issue. Methods. Using suicide data from Mortality Multiple Cause of Death Records and 2000 Census data, we examine the roles of motivation and opportunity in shaping suicide rates among young white and young black males in U.S. cities. Results. We find racial differences in the predictors of suicide; although concentrated disadvantage directly affects suicide among young white males, it only raises levels for young black males by increasing access to firearms. This finding is confirmed in additional analyses, which examine the effects of concentrated disadvantage on black and white gun and nongun suicides separately. Conclusion. The findings suggest complex relationships among the structural characteristics of cities, gun availability, and suicide. They also begin to address unresolved issues in the literature including why blacks have demonstrated comparatively lower rates of suicide despite higher levels of disadvantage as well as what may have fueled the increase in young black male suicide over the last 30 years. Finally, the findings have important implications for the study of race and suicide prevention.

Psychology and community psychologists have been only peripherally involved in studying the sociopolitical factors including power differentials and resource inequities that are at the heart of the connection the between neighborhood conditions and individual well-being. In this article, the author describes how the concept of psychopolitical validity provides community psychologists a framework for reconceptualizing the research on the effects of low-income neighborhoods on well-being. Specific elements of this framework include (a) analyzing the role of power in societal conceptions of social problems and targets of intervention, (b) posing research questions that illuminate the connection between individual and neighborhood well-being, and (c) developing and implementing a range of techniques that both ameliorate an individual's symptoms and transform the neighborhood context. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Several studies have examined the relationship between racial threat (measured by the size of black population) and social control imposed on blacks, but evidence of this hypothesis has been mixed. Although dependency on percent black as the main indicator of racial threat in many studies has contributed to the inconsistency in findings, we argue that this literature has also neglected to consider other important conceptual and methodological issues. Using 2000 census and arrest data, we estimate the impact of multiple measures of racial economic threat, such as the size of the black population, racial inequality and black immigration patterns on black arrest rates. Furthermore, by integrating racial competition and race-relations arguments, we examine how the concentration of black disadvantage may temper the extent to which blacks pose a threat to white interests. Our findings reveal important and conceptually distinct relationships between racial threat, concentrated disadvantage and the use of social control against blacks, particularly when compared to white arrests.

Florida law allows judges to withhold adjudication of guilt for persons who have either pled guilty or been found guilty of a felony. This provision may apply only to persons who will be sentenced to probation, and it allows such individuals to retain all civil rights and to truthfully assert they had not been convicted of a felony. This paper examines the effects of race and Hispanic ethnicity on the withholding of adjudication for 91,477 males sentenced to probation in Florida between 1999 and 2002. Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling is used to assess the direct effects of defendant attributes as well as the cross-level interactions between race, ethnicity and community level indicators of threat, such as percentage black and Hispanic and concentrated disadvantage. Our results show that Hispanics and blacks are significantly less likely to have adjudication withheld when other individual and community level factors are controlled. This effect is especially pronounced for blacks and for drug offenders. Cross-level interactions show that concentrated disadvantage has a substantial effect on the adjudication withheld outcome for both black and Hispanic defendants. The implications of these results for the conceptualization of racial/ethnic threat at the individual, situational and social levels are discussed.

Industrial restructuring marks the removal of a manufacturing and production-based economy in urban areas, which had served as a catalyst in concentrating disadvantage and polarizing labor markets since the 1970s. Although scholars have established a relationship between concentrated disadvantage — poverty, joblessness, racial residential segregation — and urban violence in cross-sectional studies, this literature has yet to estimate whether economic restructuring contributed to the change in urban homicide over time. Modeling this relationship requires an analytical strategy that incorporates specific indicators of (race and gender) polarized labor markets, separate from indicators of urban disadvantage, on disaggregated homicides while taking into account the growing dependency of urban cities on formal social control (via police presence and rise in incarceration). In this study I provide a theoretical rationale for linking industrial restructuring to urban homicide. Using a multivariate strategy to capture the shift in labor market forces and disaggregated homicides from 1980 to 1990, I also estimate the impact of this relationship. The results provide evidence of the industrial ship and documents both the decline in Manufacturing jobs for black males and black females and a growth in the service sector opportunities for white males only. I also find that industrial restructuring had a unique impact on disaggregated homicide beyond what has previously been established in cross-sectional studies.

Why do youth in structurally disadvantaged neighborhoods experience lower levels of informal social control? To answer this question, we examined multilevel data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Using hierarchical regression, we found that (1) neighborhood attachment and satisfaction with police contributed significantly to neighborhood levels of informal social control; and (2) neighborhood attachment and satisfaction with police mediated a substantial portion of the association between informal social control and neighborhood levels of concentrated disadvantage and immigrant concentration.

This study explains racial/ethnic differences in serious adolescent violent behavior using a contextual model derived from prior urban, developmental, and criminological theory. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, we compare involvement in serious violence among Asians, blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and whites. Results indicate that statistical differences between whites and minority groups are explained by variation in community disadvantage (for blacks), involvement in gangs (for Hispanics), social bonds (for Native Americans), and situational variables (for Asians). The lesser involvement in violence among Asians compared to blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans is accounted for by similar factors. Differences in violent behavior among the latter three minority groups are not significant. Theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.

Current criminological research rooted in social disorganization theory has primarily focused on structural disorganization and has largely ignored the role of cultural disorganization. This paper develops the theoretical role of cultural disorganization in the contemporary social disorganization model, integrating aspects of both the systemic model and a cultural attenuation model. This model is empirically examined using structural equation modeling. Survey data from residents in 66 neighborhoods in a Southern state provide the primary data. In part, the findings show that concentrated disadvantage and the level of social ties affect cultural strength, which in turn significantly affects informal social control. These findings demonstrate the relevance of weakened culture in explaining informal social control and call for further theoretical expansion of social disorganization models to include cultural disorganization.

Highlighting resource inequality, social processes, and spatial interdependence, this study combines structural characteristics from the 1990 census with a survey of 8,872 Chicago residents in 1995 to predict homicide variations in 1996–1998 across 343 neighborhoods. Spatial proximity to homicide is strongly related to increased homicide rates, adjusting for internal neighborhood characteristics and prior homicide. Concentrated disadvantage and low collective efficacy—defined as the linkage of social control and cohesion—also independently predict increased homicide. Local organizations, voluntary associations, and friend/kinship networks appear to be important only insofar as they promote the collective efficacy of residents in achieving social control and cohesion. Spatial dynamics coupled with neighborhood inequalities in social and economic capacity are therefore consequential for explaining urban violence.

This article examines the effects of aggregated indicators of concentrated disadvantage on access of the 17‐18 age cohort in Arab and Jewish localities in Israel to high school matriculation. The major findings suggest that Arab localities secure a significantly lower access to educational credentials compared to their Jewish counterparts. Arab localities were found to be much more affected by their sociodemographic characteristics than by their relatively homogeneous subordinate position in the broader economic and labour market opportunity structure. By contrast, Jewish localities were found to be rather affected by their economic and labour market differentiation, much more than by their sociodemographic characteristics. The findings further reveal the existence of a significant interaction effect between the ethnic composition of the locality and other structural variables. In sum, the concentration of disadvantage at locality level affects access to educational credentials in Israel in two c...