Inner City Decay, Poverty, Social Isolation and Crime: A Research Design.

Funding was received for a long overdue serious study of inner-city decay in Canada. Presented are the hypotheses and research methods for this projected study. The first policy challenge is providing evidence of the extent and seriousness of inner-city decay in Canada, particularly since urban difficulties are often presumed to be a problem in the United States rather than in Canada. The next policy objective is to gather data that can eventually be used to formulate recommendations for dealing with urban decay. The researchers plan to measure the extent of social isolation not only in the inner city but also in a sample of middle-income and affluent neighborhoods. An examination of crime is also important in a study of urban areas because it is a subject of great importance to the inhabitants of cities. The first formal hypothesis for the study is that extreme neighborhood poverty and disadvantage under conditions of social isolation are associated with high levels of crime. A second hypothesis is that Canadian inner-city neighborhoods are beginning to take on the characteristics of racial and social ghettoization. This hypothesis will be studied in Winnipeg (Manitoba). The third hypothesis is that inner-city social isolation is part of a wide process of isolation and exclusion that affects affluent neighborhoods as well as poor ones. The research will be based primarily on Statistics Canada census data and police records. Eventually, findings will be compared with information on some cities in the United States to gain a picture of the relative status of Winnipeg. (Contains 32 references.) (SLD)