Crime, New housing, and housing incivilities in a first‐ring suburb: Multilevel relationships across time

Abstract

Concepts deriving from criminology, housing policy, and environmental psychology are integrated to test two ways that housing conditions could relate to crime in a declining first-ring suburb of Salt Lake City. For existing housing, we use a model to test whether housing incivilities, such as litter and unkempt lawns, are associated with later crime. For new housing, we test whether a new subdivision on a former brownfield creates spillover reductions in nearby crime and incivilities.Police-reported crime rates were highest for residences near the brownfield and lowest for those farther away. After the subdivision was constructed, this linear decline disappeared, reflecting less crime adjacent to the new subdivision, but also more crime farther away. A multilevel analysis shows that incivilities, particularly litter and unkempt lawns on the block, predict unexpected increases in crime. Both brownfield redevelopment and reductions in incivilities may be important ways to improve declining suburban areas.

Perceived safety of the retrofit neighborhood: A location-based approach

“…The so called broken windows thesis or perceived disorder hypothesis (Wilson and Kelling, 1982;Roh and Oliver, 2005) -argues that signs of physical (littering, vandalism, vacant housing, abandoned cars and so on) or social disorder (disruptive social behavior) are fear-inspiring because they indicate lack of social control and point up the inability of officials to cope with these problems. Many empirical studies corroborate that perceived signs of physical and social disorder can amplify feelings of insecurity (Lewis and Maxfield, 1980;Austin et al, 2002;Brown et al, 2004;Wood et al, 2008). Pain and Townshend (2002), nevertheless found in their study, that physical incivilities were relatively minor concerns for inhabitants and had more significance to city's image for visitors than their own safety.…”

Sticks and Stones: The Impact of the Definitions of Brownfield in Policies on Socio-Economic Sustainability

“…Besides the potential untreated contamination and unemployment resulting from the removal of an industry, the derelict properties attract crimes and become eye-souring spots [6,[14][15][16][17][18][19]; these reduce the value of the properties in the area, and the incentive of investors to redevelop the area. Consequently, the deteriorated quality of life creates further out-migration and more dereliction.…”

Streets Apart: Does Social Capital Vary with Neighbourhood Design?

“…In the multivariate model, low perceived safety and suburban incivilities in the form of unkempt houses, gardens, and public spaces were negatively associated with social capital, as were perceived drug use problems, although the latter did not reach statistical significant at the 0.05 level. Interestingly, while suburbs did not differ significantly in relation to more traditionally measured incivilities such as graffiti, litter, and vandalism, there were marked differences relating to property upkeep, which has been alluded to in the literature as a more applicable marker of physical incivilities in suburban as opposed to urban neighborhoods [38]. Indeed, residents in the Conventional suburb which had the highest social capital were more likely to feel safe and reported fewer problems relating to property upkeep than both Traditional and Hybrid suburb residents.…”