Neighborhood Disorder, Fear, and Mistrust: The Buffering Role of Social Ties with Neighbors

This paper proposes that individuals who report that they live in neighborhoods characterized by disorder—by crime, vandalism, graffiti, danger, noise, dirt, and drugs—have high levels of fear and mistrust. It further proposes that an individual's alliances and connections with neighbors can bu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAmerican journal of community psychology Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 401 - 420
Main Authors Ross, Catherine E., Jang, Sung Joon
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers 01.08.2000
Springer
Plenum Press
Blackwell Science Ltd
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Biological and medical sciences
Crime
Crime - psychology
Crime fear
Fear
Fear & phobias
Female
Humans
Illinois
Inner cities
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
mistrust
Moderators
neighborhood disorder
Neighborhoods
Neighbourhoods
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Residence Characteristics
Social Disorganization
Social Networks
Social Problems - psychology
Social psychiatry. Ethnopsychiatry
Social Support
social ties
Sociocultural environment
Trust
USA
United States
North America
America
Social environment
Human
Fear
Urban environment
Violence
Cultural environment
Neighbourhood
Social integration
Social behavior disorder
Mistrust
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Summary:This paper proposes that individuals who report that they live in neighborhoods characterized by disorder—by crime, vandalism, graffiti, danger, noise, dirt, and drugs—have high levels of fear and mistrust. It further proposes that an individual's alliances and connections with neighbors can buffer the negative effects of living in a neighborhood characterized by disorder on fear and mistrust. Results from a representative sample of 2482 Illinois residents collected by telephone in 1995 support the propositions. Living in a neighborhood with a lot of perceived disorder significantly affects mistrust and the fear of victimization, adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Perceived neighborhood disorder and social ties significantly interact: informal social ties with neighbors reduce the fear‐ and mistrust‐producing effects of disorder. However, formal participation in neighborhood organizations shows little buffering effect.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:0091-0562
1573-2770
DOI:10.1023/A:1005137713332