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Digital neighbourhood platforms (DNPs) – also called online neighbourhood networks or neighbourhood social networks – are still a relatively novel phenomenon, and little is known about their actual reach among citizens and about neighbourhood conditions which foster or impede their spread. We consider DNPs as a digital extension of conventional neighbourhood social capital and analyse their spread in comparison with the latter using a recent community survey in two large German cities with a probability sample of 2900 respondents in 139 neighbourhoods. The analysis is guided by the scholarly discussion on the potential of DNPs to reduce current inequalities in the distribution of social capital. The results showed that 18% of respondents in Cologne and 12% of respondents in Essen have used DNPs. Multilevel analyses revealed a strong negative association of neighbourhood ethnic diversity with user rates, in parallel to the same negative effect on conventional neighbourhood social capital. It is therefore reasonable to assume that pre-existing inequalities in social capital are replicated by DNPs. On the individual level, the use of DNPs was less dependent on strong social bonds than on conventional social capital. Comparing respondents who use DNPs to those who do not, the former group proves to be socially more connected, more trusting and more satisfied with their neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Criminologists typically test rational choice theory by examining the relationship between one aspect of decision making—the perceived costs and benefits of crime—and the likelihood of crime, primarily using (experimental) surveys that lack consideration of the neighborhood context. Building on decades of research in the risk and decision sciences, the current study utilizes broader models of decision making to qualitatively examine how youth living in concentrated disadvantage make decisions during incidents of violence. Our thematic analysis of 22 in-depth interviews with youth in a midsize midwestern city indicates that the decision process regarding violence is much more complex than previously theorized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study shows that the global and local spatial patterns of burglary rates in the District of Columbia neighborhoods varied significantly between 2019 and 2021, and that their relationship with Concentrated Disadvantage (CD) was spatially heterogeneous. Hotspot clusters of neighborhoods with high levels of burglary changed rapidly from one year to another, while clusters with positive and negative local associations between burglary and CD did not change significantly over time. The mains lessons are that burglary hotspots are harder to predict than bivariate burglary and CD hotspots, and that the previous relationship varies significantly across neighborhoods. The research and policy implication is that we need to move beyond the spatial univariate analysis of hotspots of crime, to more detailed spatial bivariate analyses of correlates of crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol availability is a consistent predictor of domestic violence, including intimate partner violence. Less is known about the effects of alcohol availability in neighboring units of analysis on domestic violence. This study examined whether alcohol outlet density in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is associated with Male-on-Female domestic violence (MFDV). Using block groups as the unit of analysis (N = 571), spatial regression models were estimated to model the relationship between the density of total, on-premise, and off-premise alcohol outlets on MFDV, while accounting for the spatial spillover effect (i.e., alcohol availability and neighborhood characteristics in focal and surrounding block groups). At the focal level, off-premise alcohol outlets are associated with MFDV, net of concentrated disadvantage, lack of health insurance, MFDV lag and total population. Additionally, off-premise alcohol outlet density in surrounding units of analysis is a significant predictor of MFDV. However, total and on-premise densities did not demonstrate a relationship with MFDV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractA growing research body shows that victimization increases victims’ fear of crime. Typically, this research estimates average effects, which may conceal that people respond differently to victimization or that ecological contexts shape the experience of crime. The current study is among the few that attempt to uncover potential heterogeneities in victimization effects by ecological contexts. It explores whether the victims’ neighborhood conditions (levels of crime, disorder, and concentrated disadvantage) moderate the impact of violent victimization close to home on fear of crime. For this purpose, longitudinal multilevel models were estimated using data from a two-wave panel survey of about 3300 adult respondents nested in 140 neighborhoods in two large German cities. The results suggest that individuals from more disadvantaged neighborhoods tend to increase their fear of crime more strongly after victimization than those from more advantaged areas. For the other neighborhood conditions, victimization effects were estimated to be more homogenous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The negative impact of vacant and abandoned housing in city neighborhoods is extreme, affecting health and quality of life, promoting violence, and leading to further abandonment. One approach to addressing abandoned housing is to intervene with low-cost interventions that provide a visual sense of ownership. We tested whether a low-cost remediation of abandoned and vacant houses or a trash cleanup intervention would make a noticeable difference in the levels of nearby disrepair, disorder, and public safety. The abandoned housing remediation and trash cleanup interventions were a test of compliance with municipal ordinances. We used an experimental design to test the causal effects of the ordinances and because the scale of abandonment was too large to provide treatment to all abandoned houses in the city. We used systematic social observation methods to rate changes in disrepair, disorder, and litter at housing sites and on the city blocks they were located and police-reported data on gun violence and illegal substance use. Our experimental design allowed us to see whether observed disrepair, disorder, and public safety improved after working windows and doors were installed on abandoned houses compared with a trash cleanup around properties or a no-intervention control condition. Our results showed significant changes in observed disrepair, disorder, and gun violence and illustrate the benefits of experimental evaluations of place-based changes to the built environment. Improving compliance with ordinances to remediate abandoned housing can make a noticeable difference in disrepair in neighborhoods and contribute to improved public safety. We illustrate how planners can use field experiments in partnership with city agencies, nonprofit community groups, and local universities to discover novel approaches to advance place-based changes to the built environment that can help economically disadvantaged communities abate problems of physical disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gun violence imparts a tremendous human and financial toll on local communities. Researchers have documented extensive mental and physical health consequences of generalized violence exposure but few studies have analyzed the particular impacts of gun violence on community well-being using nationally comprehensive data. We leverage a unique database of almost 16,000 neighborhoods in 100 US cities (2014–2019) to examine how year-over-year rates of gun violence correspond to overall neighborhood well-being and three aspects of community health: (1) health behaviors, (2) physical and mental health status, and (3) health prevention efforts. We simultaneously consider the reciprocal influence of neighborhood well-being on subsequent gun violence while accounting for concentrated disadvantage in communities. The results demonstrate that gun violence is associated with poorer community health in subsequent years, particularly health behaviors and mental/physical health status. Furthermore, we find substantial reciprocal effects for both gun violence and community health in their relationship to neighborhood concentrated disadvantage. These findings highlight the consequential role of gun violence in perpetuating cycles of harm in local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Families relocating from concentrated poverty neighborhoods is somewhat rare, either due to structural constraints that limit mobility or the disincentive to leave dense social networks built over time. Researchers previously juxtaposed these two experiences as either "stuck" or "rooted". We advance a critical take on both perspectives by demonstrating the heterogeneity of life in disadvantaged neighborhoods for Black urban youth. We utilize data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the 1997 Child Development Supplement to investigate contextual immobility, barriers to moving, and self-reported levels of neighborhood social ties to critique prior research and emergent policy that categorizes disadvantaged populations as "stuck" or "rooted". Our findings demonstrate that immobility is most strongly associated with the household head lacking a high school education and with knowing more children's names in the neighborhood. Thus, immobility is associated with structural barriers to moving and social rootedness. We discuss how current policy strategies do not effectively address this duality. We conclude that policy strategies should facilitate intragenerational mobility through housing choice, including the choice to remain in the neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Redlining and other discriminatory government policies enacted during the first half of the Twentieth Century have had long-lasting negative effects on neighborhoods, especially those inhabited by people of color. This study attempts to link the practice of redlining to current-day indicators of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage and violent crime using spatio-temporal data from Chicago. Specifically, the study seeks to determine whether redlining has been associated with increased levels of concentrated disadvantage since its implementation in the 1930s. In addition, it seeks to determine whether redlining was associated with violent crime, and if that association was mediated by redlining's effect on concentrated disadvantage. The results indicate that redlining was associated with increases in both concentrated disadvantage and violent crime, and that redlining's relationship with violent crime was, indeed, partially mediated by its relationship with concentrated disadvantage. The findings from this study suggest that to reduce violent crime in urban communities, we cannot simply rely on our current punitive criminal justice system. Instead, policies should focus on reducing concentrated disadvantage and racial isolation by helping economically strengthen severely disadvantaged neighborhoods and by increasing residential mobility for individuals currently living in those neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Concentrated disadvantaged areas have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 outbreak in the United States (US). Meanwhile, highly connected areas may contribute to higher human movement, leading to higher COVID-19 cases and deaths. This study examined the associations between concentrated disadvantage, place connectivity, and COVID-19 fatality in the US over time. Methods Concentrated disadvantage was assessed based on the spatial concentration of residents with low socioeconomic status. Place connectivity was defined as the normalized number of shared Twitter users between the county and all other counties in the contiguous US in a year (Y = 2019). COVID-19 fatality was measured as the cumulative COVID-19 deaths divided by the cumulative COVID-19 cases. Using county-level (N = 3,091) COVID-19 fatality over four time periods (up to October 31, 2021), we performed mixed-effect negative binomial regressions to examine the association between concentrated disadvantage, place connectivity, and COVID-19 fatality, considering potential state-level variations. The moderation effects of county-level place connectivity and concentrated disadvantage were analyzed. Spatially lagged variables of COVID-19 fatality were added to the models to control for the effect of spatial autocorrelations in COVID-19 fatality. Results Concentrated disadvantage was significantly associated with an increased COVID-19 fatality in four time periods (p < 0.01). More importantly, moderation analysis suggested that place connectivity significantly exacerbated the harmful effect of concentrated disadvantage on COVID-19 fatality in three periods (p < 0.01), and this significant moderation effect increased over time. The moderation effects were also significant when using place connectivity data from the previous year. Conclusions Populations living in counties with both high concentrated disadvantage and high place connectivity may be at risk of a higher COVID-19 fatality. Greater COVID-19 fatality that occurs in concentrated disadvantaged counties may be partially due to higher human movement through place connectivity. In response to COVID-19 and other future infectious disease outbreaks, policymakers are encouraged to take advantage of historical disadvantage and place connectivity data in epidemic monitoring and surveillance of the disadvantaged areas that are highly connected, as well as targeting vulnerable populations and communities for additional intervention.

Increasing research highlights heterogeneity in patterns of social network change, with growing evidence that these patterns are shaped in part by social structure. The role of social and structural neighborhood conditions in the addition and loss of kin and non-kin network members, however, has not been fully considered. In this paper, we argue that the residential neighborhood context can either facilitate or prevent the turnover of core network relationships in later life – a period of the life course characterized by heightened reliance on network ties and vulnerability to neighborhood conditions. Using longitudinal data from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project linked with data from the American Community Survey, we find that higher levels of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage are associated with the loss of older adults' kin and non-kin network members over time. Higher levels of perceived neighborhood social interaction, however, are associated with higher rates of adding non-kin network members and lower rates of adding kin network members over time. We suggest that neighborhood conditions, including older adults' perceptions of neighborhood social life, represent an underexplored influence on kin and non-kin social network dynamics, which could have implications for access to social resources later in the life course. • Neighborhood conditions influence the addition and loss of older adults' personal network members over time. • These associations emerge even when accounting for life-course transitions, health, and social position. • Older adults living in higher levels of local concentrated disadvantage lose kin and non-kin network ties at higher rates. • Greater perceived neighborhood social ties are associated with higher rates of non-kin additions and lower rates of kin additions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1930s, the federal Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) created maps of American cities that were used to restrict investment in minority neighborhoods, leaving a durable mark on redlined neighborhoods. Since the 1990s, place-based policies are one tool the federal government has used to reinvest in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Do these programs target historically redlined neighborhoods—and to what effect? In this article, we combine data on federal place-based initiatives from 1990 to 2015 and historical HOLC maps to answer these questions. Results indicate that formerly redlined areas received substantially more funding than areas graded more favorably, indicating concentrated investment in neighborhoods that had experienced disinvestment. Federal place-based funding was associated with increased property values in formerly redlined areas, but also reductions in the share of Black homeowners, suggesting racial disparities in who benefits from rising property values. We conclude by discussing the potential and the challenges of place-based policy to address urban inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous empirical studies on the correlation between residential burglary and concentrated disadvantage (CD) in Latin America commonly omit the spatial elements of the relationship. Using Mexico City (CDMX) residential burglary data for the period 2016 to 2018, we examine the predictive capacity of concentrated disadvantage in relation to residential burglary patterns, using a Geographically Weighted Regression approach to check whether their correlation varies across CDMX police quadrants. Controlling for relevant structural variables associated with residential burglary in previous studies, we find that the relationship between CD and residential burglary is positive in 844 out of 846 police quadrants (99.7%) and significantly much steeper in some quadrants than others –up to four times the median local slope. Thus, one key implication is that as this relationship is affected by spatial heterogeneity, traditional regression-to-the-mean analyses may misinform evidence-based crime prevention policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social science research has focused on hot spots of adolescent violence in marginalized urban neighborhoods for nearly a century. In contrast, in this study, we explore under‐resourced urban areas that do not experience high rates of adolescent violence: "pockets of peace." We use a mixed‐method approach to identify the sociodemographic, geographic, and criminological commonalities and differences between pockets of peace and other areas of concentrated disadvantage dealing with high rates of adolescent violence in Indianapolis, IN. More than one out of every ten of Indianapolis' areas of concentrated disadvantage meet the criteria to be labeled "pockets of peace." Quantitative data indicate that these areas have fewer prosocial institutions and experience lower homeownership rates than comparison under‐resourced areas, and qualitative data point toward rental stability and residential longevity as potentially salient social factors within these contexts. As an alternative to using statistics to control for the context of structural disadvantage, studying pockets of peace and other "cold‐spots" of adolescent violence presents an opportunity to understand community‐level resilience within the real, lived context of structural disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Families relocating from concentrated poverty neighborhoods is somewhat rare, either due to structural constraints that limit mobility or the disincentive to leave dense social networks built over time. Researchers previously juxtaposed these two experiences as either “stuck” or “rooted”. We advance a critical take on both perspectives by demonstrating the heterogeneity of life in disadvantaged neighborhoods for Black urban youth. We utilize data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the 1997 Child Development Supplement to investigate contextual immobility, barriers to moving, and self-reported levels of neighborhood social ties to critique prior research and emergent policy that categorizes disadvantaged populations as “stuck” or “rooted”. Our findings demonstrate that immobility is most strongly associated with the household head lacking a high school education and with knowing more children’s names in the neighborhood. Thus, immobility is associated with structural barriers to moving and social rootedness. We discuss how current policy strategies do not effectively address this duality. We conclude that policy strategies should facilitate intragenerational mobility through housing choice, including the choice to remain in the neighborhood.

We proposed a multilevel model of structural influences on HIV-risky sexual partnerships in a diverse sample of 1793 youth residing in 23 states and the District of Columbia. We examined the influence of concentrated disadvantage, HIV stigma, and sexual and gender minority stigma on engagement in HIV risky sexual partnerships and whether youth's participation in opportunity structures, anticipation of HIV stigma, and perceptions of their community as youth-supportive settings mediated structural effects. After controlling for age, HIV status, and race, we found structural HIV stigma had deleterious indirect effects on youth's participation in HIV-risky sexual partnerships. Concentrated disadvantage and structural sexual and gender minority stigma had direct negative effects on youth's perceptions of their communities as supportive and on their participation in prosocial activity. Support perceptions had direct, protective effects on avoidance of HIV-risky sexual partnerships. Structural stigma undermines youth's belief that their communities invest in their safety and well-being.

Background: Concentrated disadvantaged areas have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 outbreak in the United States (US). Meanwhile, highly connected areas may contribute to higher human movement, leading to higher COVID-19 cases and deaths. This study examined the associations between concentrated disadvantage, place connectivity, and COVID-19 fatality in the US over time. Methods: Concentrated disadvantage was assessed based on the spatial concentration of residents with low socioeconomic status. Place connectivity was defined as the normalized number of shared Twitter users between the county and all other counties in the contiguous US in a year (Y = 2019). COVID-19 fatality was measured as the cumulative COVID-19 deaths divided by the cumulative COVID-19 cases. Using county-level (N = 3,091) COVID-19 fatality over four time periods (up to October 31, 2021), we performed mixed-effect negative binomial regressions to examine the association between concentrated disadvantage, place connectivity, and COVID-19 fatality, considering potential state-level variations. The moderation effects of county-level place connectivity and concentrated disadvantage were analyzed. Spatially lagged variables of COVID-19 fatality were added to the models to control for the effect of spatial autocorrelations in COVID-19 fatality. Results: Concentrated disadvantage was significantly associated with an increased COVID-19 fatality in four time periods (p < 0.01). More importantly, moderation analysis suggested that place connectivity significantly exacerbated the harmful effect of concentrated disadvantage on COVID-19 fatality in three periods (p < 0.01), and this significant moderation effect increased over time. The moderation effects were also significant when using place connectivity data from the previous year. Conclusions: Populations living in counties with both high concentrated disadvantage and high place connectivity may be at risk of a higher COVID-19 fatality. Greater COVID-19 fatality that occurs in concentrated disadvantaged counties may be partially due to higher human movement through place connectivity. In response to COVID-19 and other future infectious disease outbreaks, policymakers are encouraged to take advantage of historical disadvantage and place connectivity data in epidemic monitoring and surveillance of the disadvantaged areas that are highly connected, as well as targeting vulnerable populations and communities for additional intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across American societal institutions, a punitive culture of control and surveillance has manifested in a variety of ways, including exponential growth in incarceration rates and school suspension rates over the last four decades. To date, much of the scholarship exploring the relationship between criminal justice outcomes and school-based outcomes has focused primarily on how school punishment is consequential for future involvement in the justice system. What remains unclear, however, is whether an alternative relationship exists. That is, does a culture of control foster an environment where punitiveness in the criminal justice system is mirrored by punitiveness within schools? Drawing on carceral perspectives and place-based stratification theories and analyzing a random sample of Florida middle and high schools combined with school district data, several key findings emerge. Specifically, Black and Hispanic students are more likely to be suspended in places with higher incarceration rates; all students are more likely to be suspended in places with greater concentrated disadvantage; and Black and Hispanic students are significantly more likely to be suspended when attending schools in places with high incarceration rates and greater concentrated disadvantage. These findings highlight the interconnectedness of place and social control in the school setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study adds the context of the immediate microgeographic environment (measured as the street segment) to the study of individual victimization. Using residential survey and physical observation data collected on 449 street segments nested within 53 communities in Baltimore, MD, we employ multilevel logistic regression models to examine how individual risky lifestyles, the microgeographic context of the street, and community-level measures influence self-reported property and violent crime victimization. Results confirm prior studies that show that risky lifestyles play a key role in understanding both property and violent crime victimization, and community indicators of disadvantage play a role in explaining violent crime victimization. At the same time, our models show that the street segment (micro-geographic) level adds significant explanation to our understanding of victimization, suggesting that three-level models should be used in explaining individual victimization. The impact of the street segment is particularly salient for property crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Examine the spatial relationship between firearm dealers and shootings in Atlanta. Methods: We combine data from the Atlanta Police Department (APD), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the American Community Survey (ACS) to conduct a street network analysis from 2016 through 2018. We employ the Network Cross K Function to assess whether firearm dealers attract shootings in the city. We examine whether this spatial relationship differs by level of concentrated disadvantage in neighborhoods. Results: Without consideration of concentrated neighborhood disadvantage, firearm dealers and shootings are spatially unrelated to one another. Tract-level disadvantage influences the relationship between firearm dealers and shootings wherein dealers significantly attract shootings in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Conversely, shootings are located further from gun stores in non-disadvantaged communities. Shootings related to manslaughter and assault, but not robbery, are spatially associated with firearm dealers in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Conclusions: Building on prior research regarding firearm dealers and gun violence, we find support for an attraction effect in disadvantaged neighborhoods for certain types of shootings. We contextualize these findings within a broader discussion of how firearm dealers contribute to the complex ecology of local gun violence. This is important in light of federal policies and investments related to the prevention of and response to gun crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most consistent findings in the cross-national literature is the association between economic inequality and homicide rates. However, recent research has raised doubts concerning causality. To address some of these concerns, I draw on a (modified) version of Coleman's theory-building model to connect societal-level economic inequality and homicide rates through mechanisms operating at the neighbourhood level. The causal pathway operates through three mechanisms. First, greater economic inequality within society corresponds with higher degrees of spatial segregation by income across neighbourhoods. Second, spatial segregation contributes to concentrated disadvantage and less social integration of the lowest economic stratum, described as (reduced) collective efficacy and social isolation. Finally, more tenuous social integration contributes to higher rates of crime due to weakened social control and cultural/social adaptations to social isolation. This integration of the cross-national and neighbourhood literatures provides new avenues for research on the societal inequality/homicide association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eviction is concentrated in poor communities of color, and studies indicate eviction may affect social processes. Community and crime literature demonstrates that structural factors, such as socio-economic status and racial composition, are linked with crime and that social processes protect neighborhoods from crime. Therefore, eviction is likely concentrated in neighborhoods vulnerable to crime, but the connection between eviction and neighborhood violent crime has not yet been examined. Using data from Princeton University's Eviction Lab National Database, the National Neighborhood Crime Study 2, and the Boston Neighborhood Survey, this Boston-based study is a first step in filling this knowledge gap. Findings indicate that eviction is positively associated with crime and partially explains why crime is concentrated in disadvantaged communities of color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between mode of Internet access, variety of online activities, and the potential for the Internet to contribute to local social capital in distressed, urban communities. Based on a sample of 525 telephone surveys in Detroit, findings show that breadth of access predicts participation in a larger variety of online activities, which is associated with higher levels of local social capital. Neither public Internet access, home broadband, nor Internet access through a mobile phone data plan alone affords participation in a full range of social capital-enhancing activities. The findings highlight the potential problems of initiatives that assume equivalent social outcomes through nonequivalent modes of access, such as providing Internet access through mobile phones in place of home broadband. Efforts to enhance a city's social infrastructure by providing Internet access are best served when individuals have multiple points of access available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Close social networks provide older persons with resources, including social support, that maintain their well-being. While scholarship shows how networks change over time, a dearth of research investigates changing social contexts as causes of network dynamics. Using the first two waves of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project survey (N = 1,776), this study shows how rising neighborhood-level concentrated disadvantage through the Great Recession of 2007–2009 was associated with smaller close networks, largely due to fewer new close ties gained, among older Americans. Worsening neighborhood circumstances pose obstacles to older residents' acquisition of new close ties, including heightened fear, lower generalized trust, stress and depression, and declines in local institutions that attract both residents and nonresidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Safe Passage" is an after‐school intervention program for disadvantaged youth in a medium‐sized city in southern California. Led by local law enforcement, as well as the city's recreation and park department, the program's goal is to combine community policing with after‐school care and tutoring to support children living in a large apartment complex with the highest rates of gang membership and crime in the city. This is an exploratory study that examines the perspectives of various stakeholders in the intervention program, including the community members, the local police, and Safe Passage staff members. Survey data from the community residents, program staff and law enforcement were collected. Findings indicate that there was some consensus across the various subpopulations on the challenges that have had the largest negative influence on youth in the community. The local police and the community members surveyed were also in agreement that police/community relations were largely positive. All stakeholders surveyed felt generally positive about the intervention program, but the community members were more skeptical of the program's ability to deter their children from trouble. Implications of our findings for the program and for future studies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the world, the most marginalised groups of society are overrepresented in prisons and institutions of the criminal justice system. Besides racial and ethnic minorities, prisons worldwide disproportionately house individuals who count among the least educated, most unemployed and poorest groups of society. However, it is one of the paradoxes of penality that whilst it is obvious that criminal justice systems across the world target disadvantaged populations, the link between imprisonment and socio-economic inequality has been mostly elusive on a global and cross-national scale. This contribution addresses this paradox and aims at unravelling it. It will focus on those processes and mechanisms through which social inequality is transmitted into unequal criminal punishment, and how criminal punishment reproduces inequality. I will first present the evidence from a macro- and comparative perspective, and then explore the relationship between punishment and inequality within societies. Imprisonment growth and concentration of imprisonment are identified as routes towards exacerbating and entrenching inequality, thus being a cause rather than a consequence of inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the number and location of residential burglaries before and after a tornado that struck New Orleans, Louisiana in February 2017. Using calls for service to the New Orleans Police Department, Weather Service data and geospatial referencing, we found that the number of residential burglaries increased in the short-term aftermath of the tornado and that the increase in suitable targets caused by the tornado appears to be an important predictor of post-tornado burglary in that timeframe. We conclude with implications for policy and practice that stem from our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies indicators of social disorganization theory (i.e., concentrated disadvantage, residential instability, and concentrated immigration) to predict officers' use of coercive action during street stops of citizens suspected of criminal activity. It also investigates whether concentrated disadvantage moderates suspects' likelihood of receiving greater levels of police coercive actions when stopped for reasons listed in the New York City Police Department's Unified Form 250 (UF-250). Results from multilevel analyses of stop incidents nested within neighborhoods confirm that certain indicators of social disorganization are associated with officer use of coercive action. Further, suspects stopped in areas marked by concentrated disadvantage are less likely to receive higher levels of police coercive action. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Use of lethal force by police officers has incited riots, inspired social movements, and engendered socio-political debate. Police officers also assume a high level of risk during police–citizen encounters. Yet, existing studies tend to center on these two phenomena independently. Additionally, the under-utilization of multilevel research in these areas of inquiry has hampered attempts to empirically disentangle the individual, agency, and contextual correlates of fatal police–citizen encounters. This study integrates the predominantly distinct research bases on these phenomena to examine the contexts in which police use lethal force, relative to the contexts in which officers are killed in the line of duty. Methods: Data were compiled on 6416 citizen fatalities and 709 officer fatalities distributed across 1735 agencies and 1506 U.S. places from 2000 to 2016. A series of three-level logistic regression models examined the civilian and officer characteristics, organizational factors, and contextual features that impacted the odds of citizen fatalities by the police relative to police lethal victimization. Results: Findings indicated that structural disadvantage increased the odds of police lethal victimization relative to citizen fatalities by the police. Moreover, this contextual effect was, in part, a product of increased firearm usage by citizens who killed police in more disadvantaged areas. Conclusions: A more complete understanding of fatal police–citizen encounters requires considering police use of lethal force and police lethal victimization concurrently in their broader social contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the relationship between neighbourhood characteristics and childhood pedestrian fatalities (2001–2010) in Johannesburg, South Africa. This cross-sectional study used negative binomial regression models. Results indicate that: areas with high concentrated disadvantage have elevated childhood pedestrian deaths, especially for those aged 5 to 9 years. Areas marked by residential mobility are associated with high pedestrian deaths among children 0 to 4 years. Black childhood pedestrian deaths are higher in areas marked by a high concentration of female-headed households. The analyses highlight the value of further exploring the effects of neighbourhood characteristics and suggest points of entry for interventions to reduce or prevent childhood pedestrian traffic mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Examine the relationships among structural disadvantage, friendship network age composition, and violent offending by investigating the contextual and individual etiology of affiliating with older friends and exploring the mechanisms that link friendship network age composition to violent offending. Method: Hierarchical linear models analyze 8,481 respondents distributed across 1,485 census tracts from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Social network data are used to construct a measure of the proportion of a respondent's friendship network that is at least one grade older than the respondent. Results: Consistent with hypotheses, structural disadvantage increases affiliations with older friends, older friendship networks report higher levels of violence, and affiliating with older friends increases violence among respondents. Contrary to expectations, the influence of affiliating with older friends on respondent violence decreases, rather than increases, as levels of violence in the friendship network increase. Conclusions: The results shed light on the inextricable linkages among social context, friendship network composition, and sociobehavioral outcomes among youth. The findings inform peer mentoring program evaluations observing iatrogenic effects via peer deviancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of policing in the United States is a history of tension between the police and the public, especially in marginalised communities, where the legitimacy of the police and their interventions has been most questioned. Marginalised and often minority communities often complain about over and under policing, that is, policing that harasses local residents but does not address serious crime. In recent years, concerns with the institutional legitimacy of the police in the US and elsewhere have risen in public discussions and in scientific research. Current models of police legitimacy tend to focus on transactions between the police and the public over matters of procedural justice; however, taking a more contextual view of police interventions in communities provides opportunities to look beyond transactions and sort out the socio-cultural acceptance of the police against the myriad of services they provide to communities. Here we focus on census tracts in Boston, merging calls for service data with perceptual survey data. We find significant differences in the types of police services requested by advantaged and disadvantaged communities. Public-initiated calls for service are largely for emergency response matters as opposed to crime prevention and community restoration; police-initiated services, however, are more evenly distributed across prevention, response, and restoration. While residents of disadvantaged, high-crime communities request the police more often, they perceive themselves as unwilling to report crime. Additionally, they perceive their communities as unsafe while also viewing the police as less legitimate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite significant progress in research on the treatment and prevention of psychological, behavioral, and health problems, the translation of this knowledge into population-wide benefit remains limited. This paper reviews the state of America's children and families, highlighting the influence of stressful contextual and social conditions on child and family well-being and the concentration of disadvantage in numerous neighborhoods and communities throughout the nation. It then briefly reviews the progress that has been made in pinpointing policies that can reduce stressful contextual conditions such as poverty, discrimination, and the marketing of unhealthful foods and substances. It also describes numerous family and school interventions that have proven benefit in preventing psychological and behavioral problems as diverse as tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use; depression; antisocial behavior; academic failure; obesity prevention; and early childbearing. We argue that progress in translating existing knowledge into widespread benefit will require a nationwide effort to intervene comprehensively in neighborhoods and communities of concentrated disadvantage. We present a strategic plan for how such an effort could be organized. The first step in this organizing would be the creation of a broad and diverse coalition of organizations concerned with advancing public health and well-being. Such a coalition could increase public support both for the policies needed to focus on these disadvantaged areas and the research needed to incrementally improve our ability to help these areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual harassment is a pervasive problem predominantly perpetrated by men. Creating cultural shifts to prevent men's sexual harassment perpetration requires attention to community as well as individual factors. Study data were collected from a cohort of 768 youth and young adult males ages 10–18 at baseline (2013), with follow-up 3 years later. Multivariable regression was applied to assess the role of neighborhood characteristics, including crime rates, gender equality, and concentrated disadvantage, adjusting for individual sociodemographics and views on traditional gender stereotypes. The self-reported prevalence of sexual harassment perpetration was 8.8%. In neighborhoods characterized by greater concentrated disadvantage, the likelihood of male sexual harassment perpetration was significantly lower than in neighborhoods characterized by greater advantages. Relative neighborhood advantage was associated with sexual harassment perpetration even controlling for the significant positive association between espousing traditional gender stereotypes and perpetration of sexual harassment. The relative rates of neighborhood crime and gender equality did not predict young males' sexual harassment perpetration. In sum, young men's perpetration of sexual harassment behaviors is more common in more advantaged communities, underscoring the importance of awareness that, beyond individual attitudes, there is a collective social influence on individual behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional differences in the use of prison are, in part, due to cultures of punishment within Sunbelt states. To date, this has been largely studied at the state level, ignoring the smaller geographic areas in which the effects of imprisonment are deeply felt. We employ a novel data set to examine the relationship between prison and region and regional variation in the relationship between concentrated disadvantage and neighborhood imprisonment. We find that region affects neighborhood prison admission rates in unexpected ways, and that the relationship between concentrated disadvantage and prison admissions varies in magnitude by region. We discuss the implications of these findings for better understanding the impact of region and the processes that lead to imprisonment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary theoretical perspectives through which homicide clearance is analyzed do not give explicit attention to the neighborhood context in which people are victimized. Indeed, few clearance studies incorporate neighborhood effects. This study investigates whether neighborhood context influences the odds of homicide clearance in Rochester, NY, net of theoretically relevant victim and incident characteristics. The study also incorporates a direct measure of investigator caseload to assess the influence of organizational characteristics on clearance rates. Findings indicate that homicides, particularly of Black victims, were significantly more likely to be cleared in disadvantaged neighborhoods even as witnesses were less likely to cooperate with police in those neighborhoods. However, the odds of clearance decrease as the number of open cases each investigator is carrying increases. Case incident characteristics and the quality of evidence collected remain salient solvability factors regardless of location. Equally important is maintaining adequate staffing and keeping investigator caseloads at manageable levels. Heavy caseloads impose a significant constraint on the time that can be devoted to otherwise solvable cases and as such are analogous to the constraints imposed on prosecutors and courts by their typically heavy caseloads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lead is an environmental toxin that contributes to several health and neurological development problems, with young children particularly at risk. Research shows that elevated blood lead levels (EBLLs) are higher in communities characterized by concentrated disadvantage. However, studies have provided conflicting evidence regarding the relationship between concentrated disadvantage, lead exposure, and crime rates. We analyzed data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Census Bureau, and Boston Police Department to help address several issues in the literature. Specifically, we examined EBLLs at the census tract level and accounted for the percentage of homes built before 1979 to overcome previous research limitations regarding lead exposure measures, unit of analysis, and omitted variables. Our findings revealed that (1) the impact of concentrated disadvantage on EBLL rates was exacerbated by the amount of pre-1979 housing, and (2) concentrated disadvantage intensified the effect of EBLLs on crime rates, but only after accounting for pre-1979 housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive, heterogeneous subtype of breast cancer, which is more frequently diagnosed in African American (AA) women than in European American (EA) women. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of social determinants in racial disparities in TNBC. Data on Louisiana TNBC patients diagnosed in 2010–2012 were collected and geocoded to census tract of residence at diagnosis by the Louisiana Tumor Registry. Using multilevel statistical models, we analyzed the role of neighborhood concentrated disadvantage index (CDI), a robust measure of physical and social environment, in racial disparities in TNBC incidence, stage at diagnosis, and stage-specific survival for the study population. Controlling for age, we found that AA women had a 2.21 times the incidence of TNBC incidence compared to EA women. Interestingly, the incidence of TNBC was independent of neighborhood CDI and adjusting for neighborhood environment did not impact the observed racial disparity. AA women were more likely to be diagnosed at later stages and CDI was associated with more advanced stages of TNBC at diagnosis. CDI was also significantly associated with poorer stage-specific survival. Overall, our results suggest that neighborhood disadvantage contributes to racial disparities in stage at diagnosis and survival among TNBC patients, but not to disparities in incidence of the disease. Further research is needed to determine the mechanisms through which social determinants affect the promotion and progression of this disease and guide efforts to improve overall survival.

Prior literature has noted that disparities happen within the juvenile court process across a variety of contexts. However, research exploring this theme often neglects to use attribution theory to understand how external community-based attributions, particularly racialized interactions with real or perceived disadvantages within a community, as well as various internal attributions, and how these considerations shape placement decisions. Using quantitative juvenile court data from one southeastern state in the United States, supplemented with American Community Survey data, this study draws upon attribution theory to explore how internal and external attributions affect the placement decisions of serious and violent juveniles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Examines patterns of Twitter data related to the Michael Brown case in Missouri. • 12% of census tracts had any Twitter activity related to Michael Brown case. • Wealthier neighborhoods w/more black residents were more likely to tweet about case. • A higher volume of related tweets were found in more disadvantaged neighborhoods. Following the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014, a series of social protests on the streets and social media were ignited. The current research draws upon social disorganization theory to explore the geospatial patterns of Twitter activity related to the Michael Brown case across the state of Missouri. Geotagged Twitter data and census tract level American Community Survey data were used to determine if neighborhoods with greater social disadvantage were more represented in political discourse regarding police brutality. Results indicated wealthier neighborhoods with a higher percentage of black residents were more likely to engage in Twitter activity related to the Michael Brown case. A higher volume of activity was found, however, in more disadvantaged neighborhoods with little effect as to the percentage of black residents. Within a social disorganization framework, findings support the potential for future research to examine the idea that marginalized neighborhoods use social media as an outlet for their concerns about criminal justice practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the distribution of crime across various types of low-income housing developments and estimates the main and interactive effects of housing development and neighborhood characteristics on crime. Negative binomial regression models were estimated to observe the influence of security and design features, neighborhood concentrated disadvantage, residential stability, and nearby nonresidential land use on crime at the housing developments. The findings suggest that low-income housing developments are not uniformly criminogenic, and both development characteristics and neighborhood conditions are relevant for understanding crime in low-income housing developments. Implications for prevention are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Childhood lead exposure is linked to numerous adverse health effects and exposure in the United States is highest among people living in substandard housing, which is disproportionately inhabited by socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals. In this paper, we compared the Vox lead exposure risk score and concentrated disadvantage based on principal component analysis (PCA) to weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression to determine which method was best able to explain variation in elevated blood lead levels (EBLLs). Methods We constructed indices for census tracts in Minnesota and used them in Poisson regression models to identify the best socioeconomic measure for explaining EBLL risk. Results All indices had a significant association with EBLL in separate models. The WQS index had the best goodness-of-fit, followed next by the Vox index, and then the concentrated disadvantage index. Among the most important variables in the WQS index were percent of houses built before 1940, percent renter occupied housing, percent unemployed, and percent African American population. Conclusions The WQS approach was best able to explain variation in EBLL risk and identify census tracts where targeted interventions should be focused to reduce lead exposure. Graphical abstract Estimated weighted quantile sum (WQS) index, Vox lead exposure score, and concentrated disadvantage index from principal components analysis to explain elevated blood lead level rates across census tracts in Minnesota with county lines drawn for reference. The top panel is the entire state and the bottom panel is focused on the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. Unlabelled Image Highlights • Elevated blood lead levels are significantly related to area socioeconomic status. • Weighted quantile sum regression best explains elevated blood level risk. • Percent of houses built prior to 1940 is most important for elevated blood levels. • The conceptual model to identify areas of elevated blood lead risk is complex. • Our complex model improves on existing approaches at explaining risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homicide followed by suicide remains an understudied phenomenon in the criminological literature. This is due, in part, to methodological and statistical limitations—much of the extant research includes small samples and has not kept pace with quantitative advances. Moreover, scholarship on homicide–suicide has been focused almost exclusively on individual risk factors, discounting contextual influences. In this study, we examine whether macro‐environmental characteristics affect the odds of suicide after a homicide. We use data on 24,373 homicide and homicide–suicide cases distributed across 3,019 cities and 48 U.S. states from the National Violent Death Reporting System to examine the direct effects of structural factors on the odds of suicide after a homicide; and whether structural characteristics condition the impact of the victim–offender relationship on the odds of homicide–suicide. Hierarchical logistic regression models indicate that macro‐level concentrated disadvantage decreases the odds of homicide–suicide. Furthermore, concentrated disadvantage attenuates the odds of suicide after the homicide of an intimate partner, child, family member, or friend, relative to the killing of a stranger. The findings reveal that researchers should account for the context in which homicide–suicide occurs; failure to do so may unintentionally discount a key correlate of homicide–suicide and artificially inflate the effects of the micro‐environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]