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Objectives: Scholars and practitioners have paid increasing attention to problematic properties, but little is known about how they emerge and evolve. We examine four phenomena suggested by life-course theory that reflect stability and change in crime and disorder at properties: onset of issues; persistence of issues; aggravation to more serious types of issues; and desistance of issues. We sought to identify the frequency and dynamics of each. Methods: We analyze how residential parcels (similar to properties) in Boston, MA shifted between profiles of crime and disorder from 2011 to 2018. 911 dispatches and 311 requests provided six measures of physical disorder, social disorder, and violence for all parcels. K-means clustering placed each parcel into one of six profiles of crime and disorder for each year. Markov chains quantified how properties moved between profiles year-to-year. Results: Onset was relatively infrequent and more often manifested as disorder than violence. Pathways of aggravation led from less serious profiles to a mixture of violence and disorder. Desistance was more likely to occur as de-escalations along these pathways then complete cessation of issues. In neighborhoods with above-average crime, persistence was more prevalent whereas desistance less often culminated in cessation, even relative to local expectations. Conclusions: The results offer insights for further research and practice attentive to trends of crime and disorder at problematic properties. It especially speaks to the understanding of stability and change; the role of different types of disorder; and the toolkit needed for problem properties interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research reveals the interrelations between gentrification and policing, yet this paper introduces the unheard perspective of the of police on their role in gentrification. The study focuses on South Tel Aviv, which houses immigrants, drug addicts, prostitution and houselessness. It is undergoing massive urban renewal and has become the most policed area in the city. Methodology includes interviews with police officers (N-15), ethnography with urban police and spatial analysis of urban renewal. The paper argues that: 1. Gentrifying a high-crime neighborhood triggers a collision of urban forces and spatial negotiations amid users, institutions, and areas in the city. 2. Police play a significant role in this process and must operate intensive borderwork on various scales, with technology becoming a tool for internal, microgeographical social borderwork. 3. Policing gentrification raises reflexivity among officers regarding their profession, social obligation and position in urban politics. The paper concludes with the concept of policing temporality to describe the role of police in gentrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Certain places generate inordinate amounts of crime and disorder. We examine how places differ in their nature of crime and disorder, with three objectives: (1) identifying a typology of profiles of crime and disorder; (2) assessing whether different forms of crime and disorder co-locate at parcels; and (3) determining whether problematic parcels explain crime and disorder across neighborhoods. The study uses 911 and 311 records to quantify physical and social disorder and violent crime at residential parcels in Boston, MA (n = 81,673). K-means cluster analyses identified the typology of problematic parcels and how those types were distributed across census block groups. Cluster analysis identified five types of problematic parcels, four specializing in one form of crime or disorder and one that combined all issues. The second cluster analysis found that the distribution of problematic parcels described the spectrum from low- to high-crime neighborhoods, plus commercial districts with many parcels with public physical disorder. Problematic parcels modestly explained levels of crime across neighborhoods. The results suggest a need for diverse intervention strategies to support different types of problematic parcels; and that neighborhood dynamics pertaining to crime are greater than problematic properties alone.

Male juveniles in segregated poor neighbourhoods are at increased risk of violence. The code of the street approach is commonly used to understand the context informing street violence in such marginalized spaces, but the concept is mainly used in Western countries, especially in African American communities in the US. This study investigates whether the code of the street is also applicable to the largest Roma neighbourhood in Europe, located in Bulgaria, through guided interviews with male juveniles. The results show that some elements of the code work are applicable in this space, but clear differences also emerge. These findings affect the generalizability of the approach and the understanding of street violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Certain places generate inordinate amounts of crime and disorder. We examine how places differ in their nature of crime and disorder, with three objectives: (1) identifying a typology of profiles of crime and disorder; (2) assessing whether different forms of crime and disorder co-locate at parcels; and (3) determining whether problematic parcels explain crime and disorder across neighborhoods. The study uses 911 and 311 records to quantify physical and social disorder and violent crime at residential parcels in Boston, MA (n = 81,673). K-means cluster analyses identified the typology of problematic parcels and how those types were distributed across census block groups. Cluster analysis identified five types of problematic parcels, four specializing in one form of crime or disorder and one that combined all issues. The second cluster analysis found that the distribution of problematic parcels described the spectrum from low- to high-crime neighborhoods, plus commercial districts with many parcels with public physical disorder. Problematic parcels modestly explained levels of crime across neighborhoods. The results suggest a need for diverse intervention strategies to support different types of problematic parcels; and that neighborhood dynamics pertaining to crime are greater than problematic properties alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Much recent work has focused on how crime concentrates on particular streets within communities. This is the first study to examine how such concentrations vary across the neighborhoods of a city. The analysis evaluates the extent to which neighborhoods have characteristic levels of crime concentration and then tests two hypotheses for explaining these variations: the compositional hypothesis, which posits that neighborhoods whose streets vary in land usage or demographics have corresponding disparities in levels of crime; and the social control hypothesis, which posits that neighborhoods with higher levels of collective efficacy limit crime to fewer streets. Methods: We used 911 dispatches from Boston, MA, to map violent crimes across the streets of the city. For each census tract we calculated the concentration of crime across the streets therein using the generalized Gini coefficient and cross-time stability in the locations of hotspots. Results: Neighborhoods did have characteristic levels of concentration that were best explained by the compositional hypothesis in the form of demographic and land use diversity. In addition, ethnic heterogeneity predicted higher concentrations of crime over and above what would be expected given the characteristics of the individual streets, suggesting it exacerbated disparities in crime. Conclusions: The extent to which crime concentrates represents an underexamined aspect of how crime manifests in each community. It is driven in part by the diversity of places in the neighborhood, but also can be influenced by neighborhood-level processes. Future work should continue to probe the sources and consequences of these variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]