Critical Notes on the Cost of Crime

The Social Costs of Slums

“…For instance, if crime were suddenly eliminated (much of it is of slum location, if not of slum origin), "the effect on our entire economic structure would be as disastrous as the collapse of any othcr industry of similar magnitude." (13) THE PROFITABILITY OF SLUMS It has often heen pointed out how venerable institutlons such as churches and universities obtain much of their revenue from slum properties, hut the profitability of the slums as a whole to their owners has not been systematically examined. Nor d o we know much about the owners : whether they are absentee individual landlords, finance compaxiies, mortgage institutions, etc.…”