This project examines the intersection of race, neighborhood social organization, and crime and violence in Seattle neighborhoods. Building on recent theoretical developments, the investigators will specify an integrated theory of racial heterogeneity, social disorganization, informal social control, and sub-cultures. This theoretical perspective specifies a causal mechanism in which community structure influ-ences neighborhood crime and violence through informal social control, neighborhood cultural codes and scripts, and routine activities. The project will field a new household telephone survey of neighborhoods and victimization in Seattle. The survey will include neigh-borhood measures included in two earlier household surveys of Seattle neighborhoods on victimization and community attachment. The survey will be augmented with personal interviews of nonresponding households and households with no phone or unlisted numbers. In addition, focus groups will be used to refine the quantitative measures of street codes, as well as neighborhood ties and informal control. Analyses will be carried out in several steps. First, exploratory analyses and confirmatory factor analyses will identify dimensions underlying neighborhood concepts such as informal control and cultural codes of violence. Second, neighborhood-level models of community attachment and social control will examine the effects of racial heterogeneity and community structure on neighborhood attachment and social control. Third, neighborhood-level models of crime and violence will examine the effects of racial heterogeneity and community structure on violence, and test whether these effects are mediated by informal social control and neighborhood cultural codes and scripts. Fourth, multi-level models will capitalize on the nested sampling design of households within census tracts, estimating random effects at the household-level, and then modeling neighborhood variation in those ef-fects. Fifth, change models will examine changes in racial heterogeneity, neighborhood organization and violence. Results will increase the understanding of the dynamics of neighborhoods and violence, provide refined measures of key concepts, allow comparisons between Seattle and other major cities, and provide baseline data for neighborhood interventions, such as community policing or neighborhood block watches.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
0004324
Program Officer
Isaac Unah
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2001-09-15
Budget End
2005-02-28
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2000
Total Cost
$325,500
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Washington
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Seattle
State
WA
Country
United States
Zip Code
98195