Gentrification and Crime: Robbery and Larceny Changes in Appreciating Baltimore Neighborhoods During the 1970s

• NCJ Number: 125395
• Journal: Urban Affairs Quarterly Volume: 25 Issue: 1 Dated: (September 1985) Pages: 142-172
• Author(s): J Covington; R B Taylor
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 31 pages
• Grant Number(s): SES-8520460; 1-R01-MH40842-01A1
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)

Annotation

In Baltimore (Maryland), gentrifying neighborhoods, as compared to other appreciating neighborhoods, experienced significant unexpected increases in robbery although they did not decline as much in larceny.

Abstract

Some have suggested that the gentrification process may be associated with decreasing crime rates because of the influx of middle-income populations and, therefore, more attention from police or other agencies. The ecological characteristics of gentrifying neighborhoods suggest that they are not similar to stable lower-middle- or middle-income neighborhoods. Before and after gentrification, they are socially disorganized. Although house prices have escalated dramatically, and there has been an influx of managerial/professional households, these changes have not made over the neighborhood completely. This pattern of "patchwork" revitalization, the disinvestment and continuing population and housing diversity, and the continued diversity and partially abraded social fabric may be linked with high offense levels. 10 notes, 54 references, 2 tables.