Neighborhood Inequality, Collective Efficacy, and the Spatial Dynamics of Urban Violence

This study links police records, vital statistics, census data, and an original survey of 8,872 Chicago residents to assess an integrated theoretical perspective on neighborhood-level variations in homicide. We highlight two neglected dimensions of neighborhood context – social processes and spatial interdependence. Structural characteristics in 1990 and survey measures from 1995 are used to model variations in the event rate of homicide for 1996-1998 across 343 neighborhoods. Spatial proximity to homicide risk is strongly and positively related to variations in homicide rates, adjusting for internal structural characteristics, social processes, and even prior homicide. At the same time, concentrated disadvantage, along with low levels of social control and cohesion, predict higher rates of homicide. The density of local organizations and voluntary associations is surprisingly unimportant, while the role of friend and kinship networks is mediated by the collective efficacy of residents in generating social control and cohesion. In addition to the extreme inequality of neighborhood resources, both economic and social in nature, spatial dynamics are therefore consequential for explaining urban violence.