This project examines how the character of local white and minority communities shapes white Americans' attitudes and beliefs about racial and ethnic minorities, and how locality characteristics affect black Americans' views of their own lives. It will develop a database that brings census and crime statistics about localities together with individual-level survey responses of residents to the 1990 General Social Survey. The unique data set will then be employed in a series of four studies. Study #1 will examine the reaction of whites' perspectives about blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans to changes in the size of local minority populations, in the overall community economic status, and in the relative economic positions of local majority and minority groups. Study #2 will assess the relationship of race-specific crime rates to white respondents' fear of crime, support for more stringent law enforcement and criminal penalties, tolerance of police violence, gun ownership, and stereotypes about minority propensity to violence. Study #3 will test the hypothesis that attributional patterns condition the relationship between minority need and white support for social safety net programs. Study #4 will focus on the perspective of African Americans, examining the extent to which concentrated local poverty and high crime rates affect happiness, satisfaction, anomie, and faith in people. %%% This study will produce knowledge that will be of value for policy makers seeking to deal with the nation's persistent racial tensions. In addition, it serves as a demonstration project weighing the scientific payoff from combining data from a major attitude survey with data from the census and the FBI crime reports. If successful, therefore, the project will be a model for other research efforts in the future.
