Feeling Safe in a Dangerous Place: Exploring the Neighborhood Safety Perceptions of Low-Income African American Youth

Abstract

Research shows that neighborhood safety is strongly associated with the health and well-being of adolescents. However, few studies examine what shapes these perceptions of safety, especially for adolescents who grow up in more dangerous neighborhoods. The present study explores what factors shape the neighborhood safety perceptions of a sample of low-income, African American adolescents aged 15 to 19 years ( n = 46) from Baltimore who lived in public housing as children. The study reveals the complexity in how adolescents perceive safety, especially among those living in dangerous neighborhoods. The results highlight the importance of the type of danger (e.g., drug activity vs. gun-related violence) and social connections in shaping neighborhood safety perceptions. Sample youth are more likely to report feeling safe when there is little perceived danger. In more dangerous neighborhoods, youth feel safe where there is low violence, they have protective social ties, and they can avoid perceived danger. However, social connections can also tie youth to violence and victimization, which threatens their perception of safety. This more nuanced understanding of youth perceptions of safety has implications for the ways in which neighborhoods affect adolescents and the role of housing policy in improving the well-being of low-income youth.

Safe Spaces Embedded in Dangerous Contexts: How Chicago Youth Navigate Daily Life and Demonstrate Resilience in High‐Crime Neighborhoods

“…One of the most prominent themes that emerged from our data is that safe and dangerous spaces are embedded or overlapping, delineated by sociocontextual cues and the temporal organization of neighborhood activity. This finding upholds and extends why previous research has found that youth perceive both safety and danger in their neighborhoods (Teitelman et al, 2010;Zuberi, 2018) as well as positive and negative features (Witherspoon & Hughes, 2014). The importance of temporal organization of neighborhood space and activity has been observed in exemplar ethnographic research (e.g., Anderson, 1999;Burton & Prince-Spatlen, 1999) and supports the position that perceptions of safety and danger are intersubjectively constructed by the norms, rules, and codes of neighborhood life.…”

“…Cobbina et al (2008) found that girls were more likely to avoid being outside at night, whereas boys were more likely to carry weapons, and both groups were not likely to travel alone. Other research has found that avoidance is common across both genders (Zuberi, 2018), particularly avoiding being outside at night (Stodolska et al, 2013). In a sample of young adult Black males, Smith and Patton (2016) found high rates of hypervigilance, such as constantly being "on point" (p. 215).…”

“…Perceptions of danger and safety may also be contingent on gender. Zuberi (2018) found that social control was most salient for girl's perceptions of safety while violence and fighting implicated boys' sense of danger. Witherspoon and Hughes (2014) found that girls were more likely than boys to report feelings of neighborhood connection (i.e., feelings of belongingness and identity) and collective efficacy (informal social control and trust).…”

“…Additional qualitative work describes the duality of how safety perceptions are constructed in chronically violent settings, finding that adolescents perceived their communities as both "safe" and "unsafe" (Teitelman et al, 2010, p. 878). In Baltimore, adolescents perceived their neighborhoods to be predominately safe despite recognizing elements of danger (Zuberi, 2018). Elements that promoted safety include protective social ties, social control, and the sense of one's ability to avoid danger, while perceived danger was associated with violence, being previously victimized, and the absence of social control (Zuberi, 2018).…”

“…In Baltimore, adolescents perceived their neighborhoods to be predominately safe despite recognizing elements of danger (Zuberi, 2018). Elements that promoted safety include protective social ties, social control, and the sense of one's ability to avoid danger, while perceived danger was associated with violence, being previously victimized, and the absence of social control (Zuberi, 2018). This dual reality of safety and danger may be attributed to perceptions of both positive and negative features of neighborhoods, reflecting the pluralism of neighborhood life (Witherspoon & Hughes, 2014).…”