Suchergebnisse

Analysis of 1970-1980 US Census data for racially mixed census tracts in 25 cities challenges the adequacy of the orthodox perspective on neighborhood racial change. Black representation increased in less than 60% of the tracts during the decade; moreover, the incidence & magnitude of black increase at the tract level vary markedly across cities. An exploratory attempt is made to specify the Ur structural conditions under which the orthodox perspective holds. 4 Tables, 42 References. HA

Racial composition of mixed census tracts in 25 U.S. cities, 1970-80.

A review of the literature & a secondary analysis of various US Census data offer support for three of five hypotheses drawn from James Q. Wilson's Ur unease argument (see SA 18:4/E3298). Results confirm the important influence of perceived safety on underclass residents' levels of neighborhood satisfaction, although a simple "failure of community" explanation appears inadequate to account for the pattern of findings. 6 Tables. HA.

Census tract data are employed to examine demographic changes between 1950 and 1970 for skid row neighborhoods in 41 American cities. While the directions of trends in skid row population composition parallel those of the central city, such changes have not been of sufficient magnitude to alter skid row-central city differences which were present in 1950: skid rows remain disproportionately comprised of single, older, low-status males. However, major losses in population threaten the existence of many traditional skid row districts. The declining number of skid row residents appears to be empirically related to demographic characteristics of both the skid row neighborhood and the central city. These results are discussed in terms of ecological theories of urban growth, with attention given to the evolving functional role played by skid row in the larger urban context.

AbstractNeighborhood effects research continues to advance sociological understanding of inequality. Here, we consider a complementary but lower profile body of work. Since 2000, scholars have shown increasing interest in neighborhood reputations, socially constructed place identities that reflect the relative position of neighborhoods in the urban status hierarchy. These reputations, which emerge from multiple sources, are correlated most consistently with an area's racial and socioeconomic composition. Evidence suggests that stigmatized neighborhoods and their inhabitants experience a range of negative consequences. Prestigious neighborhood reputations may be aspirational, guiding households' preferences and influencing the residential selection process in a manner that reinforces existing disparities. Although reputations can change, they appear to do so incrementally because of their cumulative nature. A key challenge for future research is to demonstrate that neighborhood reputations are "real" rather than epiphenomenal, having significance beyond the objective characteristics of the places they represent. Resolving this issue will require finer alignment between reputation measurement and conceptualization, and more analysis of the extent of agreement needed among people's neighborhood perceptions for a reputation to exist. Longitudinal data on many neighborhoods, coupled with historical case studies, could illuminate the dynamics of reputations and help us better evaluate their presumed causes and effects.

Scholarship and popular opinion regard cities as more racially and ethnically diverse than rural communities. However, recent trends hint at the possibility of less distinctive diversity profiles on either side of the metro-nonmetro divide. To explore this, we compare the magnitude and structure of ethnoracial diversity in more than 27,000 census-defined places arrayed across ten different types of county contexts that spanned the rural-urban continuum in 2010. Even as average residents' exposure to diversity steadily declines as contexts become more rural and remote, place-based (unweighted) results show an uneven pattern of diversity across most of the continuum. Multivariate analysis supports the unevenness scenario: when place characteristics are taken into account, many of the associations between type of context and diversity weaken to the point of nonsignificance. Taken together, these findings suggest a blurring of rural-urban boundaries with respect to community ethnoracial composition.

AbstractMuch of the research on ethnoracial diversity in nonmetropolitan America consists of case studies describing how the arrival of Hispanics has transformed a particular community. To complement this work, we examine the dimensions and sources of diversity for a sample of 10,000 nonmetro places. We identify two dimensions of diversity—magnitude and structure—and draw hypotheses about their changes and correlates from the spatial assimilation and locational persistence perspectives and relevant scholarship. Our analysis of 1990–2010 decennial census and American Community Survey data documents a pervasive upward trend in diversity magnitude. However, places tend to follow parallel rather than identical diversity trajectories and to retain the same type of racial‐ethnic structure in 2010 that they exhibited 20 years earlier. Fixed effects regression models show that ethnoracial diversity gains are most likely in nonmetro communities with plentiful economic opportunities; fewer old residents; and growing total, foreign‐born, and correctional populations. These correlates hold for micropolitan and rural places and across census regions. Though our results largely conform to locational persistence logic, we find that spatial assimilation still has some merit, underscoring the importance of incorporating multiple theoretical models into a segmented change approach to nonmetropolitan diversity.

Objectives. We describe the geography, population composition, and housing stock of extremely affluent neighborhoods and evaluate the extent to which conclusions about these neighborhoods differ across definitions of affluence.Methods. Using Census 2000 data on tracts in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, we compare neighborhoods at the very top of the income distribution (highest 2 percent) to their counterparts in lower‐income categories. The distributions for median household income, median family income, per‐capita income, and the household income ratio allow us to define affluence in alternative ways.Results. Contrary to past findings, rich neighborhoods are no longer concentrated in the Northeast, and they exhibit substantial proportions of foreign‐born and Asian residents and average labor force participation rates. Other of their characteristics (e.g., educational level, professional‐managerial employment, housing size and value) seem more predictable. Although certain results vary depending on how affluence is defined, the majority do not.Conclusion. Our analysis lays an empirical foundation for future work on affluent neighborhoods, which have received scant research attention. It also makes a conceptual contribution, demonstrating that such neighborhoods stand out irrespective of the definitional approach taken.

ObjectivesWe describe the geography, population composition, and housing stock of extremely affluent neighborhoods and evaluate the extent to which conclusions about these neighborhoods differ across definitions of affluence. MethodsUsing Census 2000 data on tracts in the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, we compare neighborhoods at the very top of the income distribution (highest 2 percent) to their counterparts in lower-income categories. The distributions for median household income, median family income, per-capita income, and the household income ratio allow us to define affluence in alternative ways. ResultsContrary to past findings, rich neighborhoods are no longer concentrated in the Northeast, and they exhibit substantial proportions of foreign-born and Asian residents and average labor force participation rates. Other of their characteristics (e.g., educational level, professional-managerial employment, housing size and value) seem more predictable. Although certain results vary depending on how affluence is defined, the majority do not. ConclusionOur analysis lays an empirical foundation for future work on affluent neighborhoods, which have received scant research attention. It also makes a conceptual contribution, demonstrating that such neighborhoods stand out irrespective of the definitional approach taken. Adapted from the source document.

The United States is experiencing a profound increase in racial and ethnic diversity, although its communities are experiencing the trend differently depending on their size and location. Using census data from 1980 to 2010, we focus on a subset of highly diverse local jurisdictions in which no ethnoracial group makes up more than half of the population. We track the prevalence, emergence, and characteristics of these no-majority places, finding that they are rapidly increasing in number and are home to substantial and growing shares of the Black, Latino, and Asian populations. Transitions in no-majority places varied considerably over time. Older cohorts of places that became no-majority decades ago moved toward Latino or Black majorities, whereas those in recent cohorts tended to persist as no-majority places. Most of these communities continued to diversify in the decades after first becoming no-majority and remain quite diverse today. However, the shift toward no-majority status was often accompanied by large White population declines.

People who are chronically homeless are assumed to have higher rates of mental health problems than episodically or new‐entry homeless individuals. It is unclear to what extent early‐life and current stressors account for this disadvantage. Guided by cumulative disadvantage theory and stress research, we analyze data from a national study of theUShomeless population to examine how stressors and coping resources throughout the life course are implicated in differences among homeless people in psychiatric disorders and alcohol or other drug abuse disorders. Logistic regression analysis reveals that new‐entry homeless persons are less likely than their chronically and episodically homeless counterparts to have current psychiatric disorders. This is explained by stressors and coping resources experienced in childhood and during adult homeless spells. Alcohol and other drug abuse is common but comparable across the three homeless types and shares an association with selected stress and coping measures. Findings lend credibility to anaccumulation of risksperspective, highlighting how past as well as contemporaneous stressors are related to the mental health of homeless people.

Data from a national survey are used to examine the relationship between marginality and criminal victimization among the homeless. The results show that homeless people are victimized disproportionately often both in absolute and relative terms (i.e., compared to members of the domiciled population)and that the modal pattern entails multiple forms of victimization. Conventional demographic antecedents of victimization receive little support in the analysis. However, measures representing different dimensions of marginality—disaffiliation, health problems, traumatic events, and lifestyle-exposure—all significantly increase the odds of being victimized, as hypothesized. The failure of the lifestyle-exposure variables to mediate the effects of the other predictors suggests that distal factors should be considered along with proximate ones if the vulnerability of disadvantaged groups to crime is to be adequately understood. Implications of the present research for the victim-offender relationship and the meaning of victimization are also discussed.