Civic communities and urban violence
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-2015
Abstract
Civic communities have a spirit of entrepreneurialism, a locally invested population and an institutional structure fostering civic engagement. Prior research, mainly confined to studying rural communities and fairly large geographic areas, has demonstrated that civic communities have lower rates of violence. The current study analyzes the associations between the components of civic communities and homicide rates for New Orleans neighborhoods (census tracts) in the years following Hurricane Katrina. Results from negative binomial regression models adjusting for spatial autocorrelation reveal that community homicide rates are lower where an entrepreneurial business climate is more pronounced and where there is more local investment. Additionally, an interaction between the availability of civic institutions and resource disadvantage reveals that the protective effects of civic institutions are only evident in disadvantaged communities.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Social Science Research
First Page
303
Last Page
316
Recommended Citation
Doucet, J., & Lee, M. (2015). Civic communities and urban violence. Social Science Research, 52, 303-316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.01.014