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Although much of the urban violence literature focuses on the link between urban disadvantage and crime rates, in this article we explore the relationship between African-American entrepreneurship and rates of juvenile violence, net of the effects associated with labor market shifts and the concentration of disadvantage within these areas. That is, Black-owned businesses have increased considerably over time but have largely been neglected in the criminological literature. After generating two distinct measures of Black entrepreneurship, we test to see if Black-owned businesses were significant to the documented decline in juvenile violence in larger U.S. cities from 1990 to 2000. We find an inverse relationship between entrepreneurship and juvenile arrests involving violence across multiple cities in 1990 and 2000. Furthermore, when estimating a pooled cross-sectional time-series design, the growing presence of African-American businesses is a significant contributor to the change (decline) in Black youth violence during the period of the 1990 crime drop, while the rate of paid employees in Black firms remained unrelated to Black youth violence. In changing economic times, we discuss the importance of exploring ways to capture the presence of African-Americans in the urban economy.

Industrial restructuring marks the removal of a manufacturing and production‐based economy in urban areas, which had served as a catalyst in concentrating disadvantage and polarizing labor markets since the 1970s. Although scholars have established a relationship between concentrated disadvantage — poverty, joblessness, racial residential segregation — and urban violence in cross‐sectional studies, this literature has yet to estimate whether economic restructuring contributed to the change in urban homicide over time. Modeling this relationship requires an analytical strategy that incorporates specific indicators of (race and gender) polarized labor markets, separate from indicators of urban disadvantage, on disaggregated homicides while taking into account the growing dependency of urban cities on formal social control (via police presence and rise in incarceration). In this study I provide a theoretical rationale for linking industrial restructuring to urban homicide. Using a multivariate strategy to capture the shift in labor market forces and disaggregated homicides from 1980 to 1990, I also estimate the impact of this relationship. The results provide evidence of the industrial ship and documents both the decline in Manufacturing jobs for black males and black females and a growth in the service sector opportunities for white males only. I also find that industrial restructuring had a unique impact on disaggregated homicide beyond what has previously been established in cross‐sectional studies.

In a stagnating urban economy, Elijah Anderson's (1999) Code of the Street depicts a disadvantaged environment where residents face high levels of joblessness, poverty, racial residential isolation, and family disruption. Anderson argues that the loss of job opportunities for African‐American men deprived younger generations of traditional male role models. That is, in a disadvantaged urban setting with a lack of male role models participating in legitimate labor market activity, many young people may turn to violence. Drawing on insights from Anderson's ethnographic work, we assess the generality of Anderson's claims more broadly and explore the potential connection between his work and the macrolevel research on urban violence. Specifically, we explore the influence of male role models (older, employed black males) and the concentration of urban disadvantage on black juvenile arrests for violence across multiple cities in 2000. Overall, we find empirical support for Anderson's concerns over the removal of traditional male role models from urban areas as a result of concentrated disadvantage. Specifically, we find that the presence of traditional male role models reduces the rates of African‐American youth violence. Additionally, our measure of traditional male role models mediates the relationship between structural disadvantage and juvenile violence. We discuss the contributions of Anderson's work to the macrolevel study of urban violence.

Introduction -- The difference race and gender makes : a detailed look at violent crime and the crime drop -- Structural perspectives on crime and their critics -- Racial stratification and the local urban economy -- Race, urban inequality, and the changing nature of violence : an illustration of theoretical integration 98 -- Conclusion

AbstractEntrepreneurship is touted as a pathway to achieve economic mobility and this is particularly true among immigrants and Black Americans. There is little research on whether the rise in Black entrepreneuership is linked to the declining rates of violernce in urban areas, net of effects associated with the concentration of disadvantage. After generating two distinct measures of Black entrepreneurship using national-level business ownership data, we test to see if Black-owned businesses were significantly related to the documented decline in juvenile violence in larger US cities from 1990 to 2010. Our findings show an inverse relationship between Black entrepreneurship and youth violence across multiple cities in 1990 and 2000, while the rate of paid employees in Black firms contributed to a reduction of Black youth violence in 2010. Furthermore, our fixed-effect design confirms the growing presence of Black businesses is a significant contributor to the reduction in Black urban violence. In changing economic times, we discuss the theoretical and empirical importance of Black entrepreneurship as a way out of poverty and crime in urban areas.

Elijah Anderson's Code of the Street provides an ethnographic account of a disadvantaged urban environment where residents face poverty and racial residential isolation. For Anderson, joblessness among African-American men deprive youth of positive male role models, creating a context for the "street code" to govern behavior, leading youth to violence. Similarly, a disadvantaged urban setting in which opportunities in legitimate labor markets are lacking fosters an environment where youth may seek illicit markets for a means of economic support. Drawing on Anderson's work, we assess the availability of male role models (older, employed black males) and the concentration of urban disadvantage on black juvenile drug sales and violent arrests across multiple cities in 2000. We find Anderson's concerns over the removal of traditional role models as a result of rising disadvantage in a Philadelphia community to be generalized to large urban areas. Specifically, we find that the presence of traditional role models reduces aggravated assaults by youth, but male role models are unable to reduce the economic lure of drug sales for black urban youth in disadvantaged environments.

In an effort to disentangle the theoretical & empirical distinctness of poverty from constructs of extreme concentrated poverty, the differential impact of these measures on black & white homicide rates is assessed. Data are derived from the Urban Underclass Database, & the race-specific homicide rates are computed from information compiled in the Uniform Crime Report. Race-specific measures of poverty & poverty concentration are found to be highly correlated, challenging claims of their empirical distinctness. A closer inspection of the data, however, reveals that while poverty & poverty concentration affect the white homicide rate, only the traditional measure of poverty impacts black homicide. It is concluded that the finding of differential impacts of poverty & poverty concentration on black & white homicide rates is reflective of works by William J. Wilson (eg, 1987), Douglas S. Massey & colleagues (eg, 1994), as well as of criminological writings. Future research is needed to extend the study of poverty concentration in the area of measurement & the potential impact concentrated poverty may have on various types of crime & victimization. 3 Tables, 44 References. Adapted from the source document.

This research examines the differential effects of structural conditions on race‐specific victim and offender homicide rates in large U.S. cities in 1990. While structural theories of race relations and criminological explanations are reviewed, particular attention is given to those structural theories that highlight racial competition, economic and labor market opportunity, and racial segregation as essential for an examination of racially disaggregated homicide offending. The effects of these and other structural conditions are estimated for four racially distinct homicide offending models—black intraracial, white intraracial, black interracial, and white interracial homicides. The results suggest that the structural conditions that lead to race‐specific victim and offender homicide rates differ significantly among the four models. Economic deprivation and local opportunity structures are found to influence significantly the rates of intraracial homicide offending, while racial inequality contributes solely to black interracial homicide rates. In addition, our findings indicate that blacks and whites face different economic and social realities related to economic deprivation and social isolation. The differential impact of these structural conditions and other labor market factors are discussed.

AbstractIntimate partner homicide (IPH) continues to be a form of violence disproportionately affecting women in the United States, and access to firearms can greatly increase the likelihood that intimate partner violence becomes lethal. In response to concerns about firearms violence and their prevalence in IPH incidents specifically, states have passed restrictive firearms laws and policies. In this study, we provide an analysis of female IPH victimization disaggregated by race/ethnicity that incorporates state‐level firearms legislation. Our analytical approach is informed by intersectionality and accounts for other key intimate partner violence policies and structural predictors. We find that the relationship between firearms legislation and IPH varies in magnitude and direction across specific race/ethnicity female victimization groups. As such, our findings provide support for an intersectional framework in that restrictive firearms laws are not consistently associated with lower levels of IPH when incidents are disaggregated by gender and race/ethnicity.

Political and public rhetoric often tout the detrimental effects of poverty and the stabilizing effects of jobs when discussing issues of crime and disorder. Several decades ago, William Julius Wilson proposed that while poverty has been a long-standing problem across U.S. cities, a "new urban poverty" associated with the massive disappearance of jobs may better explain neighborhood crime and violence. Although scholarship continues to theorize about the unique criminogenic effects of area-level poverty and joblessness, criminological research has not systematically examined the distinct effects of poverty and jobless poverty on neighborhood crime. In the present analysis, we use data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study (NNCS) to provide the first empirical investigation of how joblessness, separately from poverty, influences rates of homicide and other reported violence across 6,406 neighborhoods in 53 U.S. metropolitan areas. A spatially adjusted, multilevel regression analysis reveals that places with poverty and joblessness are distinct from areas with poverty and no marked joblessness. Analysis by neighborhood further reveals that joblessness has a stronger effect on violent crime than poverty itself in severely impoverished areas. As such, we find support for Wilson's distinct, criminogenic notion of jobless poverty.