UC Irvine

Previous research frequently observes a positive cross-sectional relationship between racial/ethnic minorities and crime and generally posits that this relationship is entirely due to the effect of minorities on neighborhood crime rates.  This study posits that at least some of this relationship might be due to the opposite effect:  neighborhood crime increases the number of racial/ethnic minorities.  This study employs a unique sample (the American Housing Survey neighborhood sample) focusing on housing units nested in micro-neighborhoods over three waves from 1985 to 1993.  This allows us to test and find that such racial/ethnic transformation occurs due to two effects:  first, white households that perceive more crime in the neighborhood, or that live in micro-neighborhoods with more commonly perceived crime, are more likely to move out of such neighborhoods.  Second, whites are significantly less likely to move into a housing unit in a micro-neighborhood with more commonly perceived crime, whereas African American and Latino households are more likely to move into such units.