NCJ Number
240900
Journal
Criminal Justice Review Volume: 37 Issue: 3 Dated: September 2012 Pages: 319-336
Date Published
September 2012
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study investigated the consequences of Black to Latino transition in a disadvantaged area of Los Angeles and, importantly, to examine the impact of racial change on intragroup and intergroup youth violence.
Abstract
Criminological research has consistently found evidence that residential instability leads to increases in violent crime, but little research assesses whether a specific type of residential turnoverracial and ethnic successionimpacts who is involved in the violent crime event. The purpose of this study is to investigate the consequences of Black to Latino transition in a disadvantaged area of Los Angeles and, importantly, to examine the impact of racial change on intragroup and intergroup youth violence. The author utilizes structural equation modeling to estimate a series of four simultaneous equations testing the rates of Black on Black, Black on Latino, Latino on Latino, and Latino on Black-aggravated assaults and robberies between 2000 and 2006. Since many theories of intergroup violence cite the economic differential between groups as a motivating factor, the author incorporates the ratio of Black to Latino median household income as a predicative factor. The author finds some evidence that racial/ethnic change leads to increased violence, but only for within-group robberies, and that racial/ethnic change is not a significant predictor of intergroup violence. Contrary to theoretical expectation, income inequality is not a significant predictor of changes in intergroup violence. Abstract published by arrangement with Sage Journals.