Examining the threshold for neighborhood ownership and crime

Although prior research shows that neighborhoods with lower levels of residential property ownership have higher signs of incivilities and higher rates of crime, it is still unclear how built environments, territoriality, incivilities, and crime are related to residential property ownership. In this exploratory study, a total of 68 neighborhood blocks in a mid-size city in the Southeast region of the US were examined in 2011. Residential properties were categorized as three types of neighborhoods: owned (at least 70% owner-occupied), rented (at least 70% renter-occupied), and mixed (evenly split around 50% owned and rented). Data were obtained from the county property assessment GIS maps, the Revised Block Environmental Inventory (RBEI) including information about built environments, incivilities, and territoriality, and police crime data. Fourteen raters (7 dyads) conducted environmental inventories in the three types of residential properties. Inter-rater agreement was quite high, ranging from .85 to .92. Our results showed that built environments and territoriality were highest in the “mixed” neighborhood and lowest in the “owned” neighborhood. A similar pattern emerged for incivilities, although incivilities were quite high for the “mixed” neighborhood. Police crime data revealed that violent crimes and public order offense crimes were higher in the “rented” neighborhood, while property crimes were higher in both the “mixed” and “owned” neighborhoods. This study suggests that when it comes to crime, incivilities, territoriality, and built environments, it is important to examine the threshold for owned residential properties in a neighborhood. Further implications for neighborhood safety interventions will be discussed.